The decision by Dr Mo Mowlam to meet loyalist prisoners in the Maze prison tomorrow is, to use a phrase favoured by the former Ulster Unionist Party leader James Molyneaux, a "high-wire act".
Lord Molyneaux was, and is, opposed to such acts, especially where the performer operates without a safety net.
As Dr Mowlam makes her way into the loyalist wings of the Maze she can be sure there are plenty of politicians outside who expect that she may be in for a very big fall that could, in the political sense, prove fatal.
The DUP, the UK Unionist Party, the LVF, opponents of the talks within the Ulster Unionist Party, republican dissidents and others would delight in Dr Mowlam making a headlong dive that would damage her political reputation, and possibly also wreck the peace process.
This is a move that her predecessors such as Sir Patrick Mayhew and Mr Peter Brooke would not have contemplated.
This is to lend credibility to the UDA and UVF without any guarantees of a positive return. The former secretaries of state would probably feel it is a gamble too far.
There is no such reticence from the Northern Secretary, who is convinced her visit is a "risk worth taking" for peace. And it's a big risk.
Just think of the ammunition her enemies and opponents of the process will have in stock following this visit, the first by a Northern secretary to meet loyalist prisoners. Here will be Dr Mowlam meeting prisoners like Milltown Cemetery killer Michael Stone, and most likely others of similar ilk.
It's little wonder that the DUP deputy leader, Mr Peter Robinson, describes it as a crazy act, and Mr Ian Paisley jnr calls it "madness". Mr Robinson said she was "pandering to terrorists". Mr Paisley said this was further evidence that the peace process was "held to ransom by the terrorists and the spokesmen of terror".
It has also prompted pressure from Sinn Fein members who, while saying they have no objection to Dr Mowlam's visit, want her to meet IRA prisoners in the Maze. If she doesn't, be sure the old lack-of-parity-of-esteem-for-republicans argument will be trotted out.
There's also a large and fairly moderate unionist constituency which will be horrified that a Northern Secretary is prepared to deal directly with people who have committed terrible acts. Psychologically, most reasonable nationalists would accept and understand Dr Mowlam's rationale, but reasonable unionists have a different psyche, and would be chary of such acts.
This meeting could be as damaging to her career as was the singing of My Darling Clementine by Mr Peter Brooke on The Late Late Show, coinciding as it did with the IRA atrocity at Teebane.
Most politicians, taking such a step, would operate on - at the very least - a very strong wink and a nod that they would gain a positive response. But Dr Mowlam seems to be operating without such sureties.
Reporters who studied the glum demeanour of the UDP leader, Mr Gary McMichael, and his colleagues after they met UDA prisoners in the prison on Tuesday were convinced that loyalists were not bluffing. The cryptic signals coming from the Progressive Unionist Party can't have given her any confidence of succour from that quarter. Equally worrying is the absolute silence of the UVF.
So, is this the act of a desperate woman? Absolutely not, said Dr Mowlam in the course of several interviews yesterday. She had spoken to prisoners while in Opposition, and now she was meeting them as a British minister.