On Tuesday, Tony Blair was given a glimpse of how the future might, or might not, work in Northern Ireland. It was not a cheering prospect. UTV brought a group of young people to Downing Street to question the Prime Minister about the Belfast Agreement, and what will happen if there is no resolution to the decommissioning impasse before next week's deadline.
It must have seemed like a good idea when first suggested to Alistair Campbell. A key element of Mr Blair's strategy has been to appeal to the people of Northern Ireland to put pressure on their politicians to move forward. "Let's do it for the children," has been a recurring theme of that appeal. It lay behind the Prime Minister's appearance among students at Stranmillis College last week, when he delivered a blunt attack on those who have rejected the spirit of the Belfast deal.
The six young people who came to Downing Street did not give much cause for optimism. Of the four unionists and two nationalists, only two seemed disposed even to try to understand the fears and difficulties of the other side.
If anything, they appeared to be more intransigent than their political leaders, lending an awful credibility to the view that the opportunity which is on offer now could be lost for another generation.
This was the more depressing because they were extremely confident and articulate when expressing their opinions. The young woman speaking for the SDLP did appeal to politicians to deliver on what they had promised the voters - peace rather than rigid ideology. But she was alone in her plea for compromise.
Mr Blair, who must have seen this as an opportunity to reach out to young people, became very glum as the programme continued. He made all the reasonable arguments for a historic leap of faith now.
The most difficult constitutional issues which even a few short years ago would have preoccupied both sides in Northern Ireland - consent, cross-Border institutions, the setting up of an assembly - had all been resolved. Surely it should be possible for "sensible" people to agree to "sequencing" which would overcome the last hurdle. The young inquisitors ranged before him seemed deaf to his appeals.
From a pessimistic point of view (and there is a lot of it about just now), the programme seemed to confirm Mr Blair's belief that it is essential to get a resolution to the decommissioning problem as quickly as possible. There is little evidence of more moderate voices waiting in the wings. On the contrary, if the agreement is seen to fail, the rejectionist voices in Northern Ireland will be swift to claim victory.
In London, Dublin and elsewhere such a development will be taken as evidence that there is insufficient political will to negotiate an inclusive settlement for the foreseeable future.
This is a conclusion which the two governments must work to avoid. The fact that Mr Blair has decided to postpone his visit to Belfast, and will instead meet the Taoiseach in London, indicates that both men may have given up on their hope of achieving a quick-fix solution to decommissioning before June 30th.
That would be no bad thing. I've argued in this space before that the last thing the Belfast Agreement needs is another deadline.
As June 30th has drawn closer, both sides have become more, not less, truculent about decommissioning. That should not surprise us. There is a long, long history of bitterness and mistrust to be laid to rest before this peace process can be accounted a success. There was bound to be at least one crunch issue which would come to epitomise the difficulties of building mutual confidence.
Indeed, there may be other obstacles on the road ahead which will require more generosity and resourcefulness if peace is to be achieved.
Mr Blair and others may ask why it is not possible for sensible, intelligent people, who want the agreement to work, to sit down and find a way around this problem. They fail to understand fully just how far the two communities have come, and how fast.
Perhaps what people in Northern Ireland need is time to take stock and get a second wind for the haul which still lies ahead.
What is most important now is to steady nerves and to hold out the hope that real progress can still be made, even if that means waiting until the autumn to resume negotiations in earnest.
We are facing into a very difficult period. But people in Northern Ireland have had to get through angry, explosive summers before this year and may well do so again. What they have a right to know is that the two governments are still committed to achieving an inclusive settlement which will relegate such dangers to their proper place in history.
FOR that reason, any dramatic decision which could be seen to favour one political community should be avoided. There has been speculation that the British government, with the agreement of Dublin, will decide to wind up the Assembly or, at least, to stop paying members' salaries. That would be immediately interpreted as a defeat for unionists.
From the start, Sinn Fein accepted the Assembly very reluctantly. It still sees it as a concession to unionists and Martin McGuinness has made it clear that Sinn Fein would shed no tears if it were to be scrapped.
This ignores the fact that the people of Northern Ireland voted for the Assembly and for its members. Many of the people who sit in it, including many unionists, have worked very hard to make the Belfast Agreement work.
Others, members of the DUP and the UKUP, are opposed to the accord but the Assembly has allowed them to express their opposition by democratic means. It has also enabled the most unlikely political opponents to sit and work together on committees, a small step but a necessary one in the building of trust.
What Northern Ireland has at the moment in terms of democratic structures may be very far from perfect but they are infinitely preferable to the alternative of resolving differences by recourse to violence.
If Mr Blair has learnt anything from his study of the Balkans, it must be that the healing of ethnic conflicts is an appallingly difficult task. There is always the danger that they will break out again, which is why the foundation for new political structures must be securely built.
We always knew that securing the aspirations of the Belfast Agreement would take a long time and require infinite patience. It remains the best hope of this and future generations.
Politicians must not give up on any of the progress which has been made.