Offer to list the roots of trouble in Northern Ireland and you can expect argument. But few would deny the enduring controversy over public appointments or that parades have caused uproar for centuries; the centrality of questions about who may march where and when, to whom authority is given.
Yet in his treatment of both issues, Northern Secretary Peter Hain seems unfazed by the prospect of disturbing agreement, or at least acquiescence, painfully achieved. Even odder is that he has been facilitated by civil servants, of whom greater sensitivity, not to mention deeper local knowledge, might surely be expected.
Last week, the High Court found that by appointing an interim victims' commissioner to please the DUP Mr Hain had an "improper" and political motive and breached equality laws. There was more. Mr Hain had "failed in his duty of candour", had tried "to divert attention from the true course of events". The Northern Ireland Office (NIO) had obscured the DUP's involvement, including its nomination of the commissioner and the fact that it was the only party consulted about the appointment.
The stinging judgment listed five points at which civil servants - including the North's two most senior figures - avoided telling the courts what they wanted to know or gave them inaccurate accounts. In a devastating sentence, Mr Justice Girvan wrote: "For some reason it was decided within government that incorrect and misleading information would be supplied." He called for an "immediate and searching inquiry at a high level" into why the NIO had effectively led a previous court to draw the wrong conclusion.
The case was brought by Brenda Downes, whose husband was fatally injured by a plastic bullet fired by an RUC officer. Ms Downes complained about the appointment of Bertha McDougall, widow of an RUC officer shot dead by the IRA. Both women received respectful treatment from the court: it was the method of appointment that was at issue. The judge is to rule today on costs and damages. There are unnerving suggestions that any fine and all costs are likely to come out of the public purse.
The affair is disturbing in itself but resembles other Hain behaviour, in particular his appointment of two members of the Orange Order to the Parades Commission, without regard to any question of balance - again with civil service support. The House of Lords has just decided to consider a challenge to those appointments.
But the Parades Commission has arguably been knocked off balance by the controversy. The more fundamental damage was the spectacle of a direct hit to the precepts of transparency and fairness in employment, inflicted by the man entrusted with the administration of Northern Ireland. The fact that nobody in London is likely to have noticed even the most swingeing judicial criticism of Mr Hain's conduct adds the final dispiriting gloss.
Mr Hain's defence is his keenness, close to desperation, to draw the DUP and Sinn Féin into agreement and revive a power-sharing Executive. The message is that he will do whatever is necessary. But the medium is a freewheeling cavalcade of decisions and statements, a style cavalier to the point of recklessness. Raymond McCord, whose son was killed by the UVF, said the Northern Secretary dozed off during a meeting with him. Mr Hain insisted he had listened carefully, adding that he would say to Mr McCord or anyone who wanted his help: "There are ways to do it and ways to not do it."
To please unionists, Shankill bomber Seán Kelly was returned to prison. To encourage the IRA to make their "going out of business" declaration, Kelly was released again. It was hard to escape the impression that Mr Hain thought he deserved unionist congratulations for the first decision and republican thanks for the second.
The North has seen a gradual, piecemeal creation of systems of fairness. It has taken more than three decades to establish a culture of balance and openness about making public appointments. Parades, troublesome since the 18th century, have become less problematic with the ebbing of violence, the painstaking implementation of rules and the directions of the Parades Commission.
There is nothing safe and settled about this fledgling culture of fairness: it must have official respect as well as compliance. At a delicate moment, Mr Justice Girvan's eloquence on the necessity for vigilance in the matter of public appointments struck a blow for the concept of the judiciary as guardian of what is fair and just.
Mr Hain has invested much energy in trying to line up the job of deputy prime minister, post-Blair.
He knows well that the Northern Ireland post attracts more sympathy than scrutiny in Westminster. But whatever his next job, he should have learned in Belfast that some corners are too important to be cut.
We can only hope he doesn't do too much more damage before he leaves.