The middle ground was never easy to reach in Northern Ireland and, once reached, it was not a comfortable place to be in. But the middle ground was also very often the high moral ground as well, which was one of the reasons it was usually worth striving to get there.
Mr Seamus Mallon, Deputy First Minister and Deputy Leader of the SDLP, has firmly staked out the middle ground in his address to the opening night of the SDLP conference in Newry, Co Down.
His message to Sinn Fein and the Ulster Unionists is not "A plague on both your houses" but rather, "Would both sides please lighten-up and relax before the whole process comes crashing around our ears?"
They won't be rushing to admit it publicly, but his strategy is bound to annoy both the unionist and republican camps.
Unionists insist decommissioning is a supreme moral imperative, a sine qua non which must be fulfilled before Sinn Fein can have those cabinet seats.
Sinn Fein sees the decommissioning demand as a nasty ploy dreamt up in the first instance by "spooks" and "securocrats" to destroy the republican movement and employed now by the unionists as a cover for their fundamental opposition to the Agreement and to any serious improvement in the position of nationalists.
Mr Mallon has placed himself very cleverly between those two hardline stances and his speech is, in effect, an adjudication on the merit of each side's position.
He addresses the fear among unionists - and elsewhere in the community - that Sinn Fein will simply pocket all the "goodies" in the Good Friday pact such as cabinet posts, prisoner releases, changes in policing and new equality measures but will then fail to honour its obligations on decommissioning.
Under the heading "Solemn Guarantees from the SDLP", Mr Mallon says he believes this will not occur and that it is not Sinn Fein's intention.
In the most significant paragraph of his speech, he adds: "But no one should have any doubt that if it did happen the SDLP would rigorously enforce the terms of the Agreement and remove from office those who had so blatantly dishonoured their obligations."
Sceptical unionists will immediately compare the "Mallon Guarantee" with similar undertakings given by the British Prime Minister, Mr Blair.
They will also cast doubt on the political ability of the SDLP to carry out this undertaking, given the level of support for Sinn Fein in the nationalist community.
Others will recall, however, that Sinn Fein was removed from the multi-party talks early this year because of two killings by the IRA. They will also insist that Sinn Fein's continuance in office will be politically impossible without IRA decommissioning.
Fundamentally, the decommissioning impasse is not about what's in the text of the Agreement; rather it is a problem of trust.
As Mr Mallon himself points out, the unionists don't trust the republican movement to give up the guns and the republicans don't believe the unionists will be satisfied until the "Croppies" lie down.
For Mr Trimble - who was not mentioned once in Mr Mallon's text - to make use of the "cloud cover" provided by the Mallon Guarantee would require a major act of faith on the part of the First Minister and UUP leader.
Of course it could be argued that even accepting Sinn Fein membership of the executive on the basis of a few rusty revolvers would itself be a leap in the dark - what guarantee that the IRA would not replenish its arsenal the next day?
It is likely that Mr Mallon's thinking parallels that of the administration in Dublin - especially the mandarins in Iveagh House - and it would be very surprising if the Northern Secretary, Dr Mowlam, did not know his mind on this issue.
The speech is more than a declaration, it is an initiative. In essence he is asking the unionists: accede to republicans joining the executive and my party will guarantee that Sinn Fein fulfills its obligations on decommissioning.
Mr Mallon also promises Sinn Fein that the SDLP will not permit unionists to impose additional obstacles to republicans in cabinet. But the principal effect of his speech will be to increase pressure on the unionists: do they hold to their current position and possibly bring down the Agreement or do they make the leap of faith required to keep the process alive?
Initial reaction last night was not encouraging. Senior UUP sources said: "Seamus seems to be telling a story of the next two years which ends happily ever after, but it lacks the key opening line, `Once upon a time the unionists sat down with Sinn Fein in an executive before decommissioning'. Seamus's plan is purely academic because the situation is not going to arise."
On mature reflection, the unionist position may change but the pattern in the past has been that the UUP compromises only at the very last minute, giving its DUP and UKUP opponents the minimum possible time to denounce the "sell-out".
That means a compromise won't be on the cards until next spring. The white-knuckle ride continues.