Since the Good Friday Agreement led to the devolution of powers to Stormont, various secretaries of state have done their utmost to cast themselves in the role of honest broker between unionists and nationalists.
Disputes over flags, parades and even recent concerns around welfare and budgets have been seen as 'internal' matters to be resolved largely by the assembly and executive.
When it comes to the legacy of the Troubles, however, the British government is unable to shirk its responsibilities, as it was a main player in the conflict and in many cases may have acted as an agent provocateur.
Secretary of State Theresa Villiers appears to share the widespread desire to put a strategy in place for dealing with the past but her government's inclusion of a national security clause in proposed legacy legislation is cited as the main impediment to reaching agreement.
Late last year in an interview with The Irish News, the Republic's Minister for Foreign Affairs Charlie Flanagan described the veto as "smothering blanket" that had been applied in a manner that he did not regard as acceptable.
As one might expect, Ms Villiers doesn't share this point of view.
In Belfast yesterday to deliver a speech on legacy issues, she insisted that the national security veto would not be applied to keep a lid on information that is likely to embarrass the British government.
She highlighted how there would be an opportunity for victims' families to challenge its use in the courts.
The clause would only be invoked in instances where individuals' lives would be put at risk and if it involved disclosing "capabilities and techniques... of value to terrorists".
"It can't be used as a blanket means to suppress information that the state doesn't want to go into the public domain – if we tried to do that we'd be overturned in the courts."
Ms Villiers claimed the only dispute between the different sides in the legacy debate is making sure the veto is "exercised fairly".
"We need to continue the discussions to see what we can come up with which instils confidence in the families that they're going to see absolutely as much as it's possibly safe to put in the public domain, but there is certain information that never will be safe to put in the public domain," she said.
The Conservative MP doesn't envisage agreement ahead of the assembly election, nor does she put any deadline of reaching a deal after May's poll.
She says "we need to get on with this" but suggests that even though dialogue between the parties is continuing, there's little appetite for a "Stormont House talks part three".
"I certainly hope the parties can focus on it intensively once the elections are out of the way because there clearly was a significant amount of disappointment when the legacy bodies didn't form part of the agreement," she said.
As an interim measure, Ms Villiers has indicated that some of the £150m earmarked by the British government for legacy matters may be made available for Troubles' inquests, though she addresses concerns that this could put a big hole in the pot by insisting the Stormont executive has the "flexibility" to use funds from the block grant.
Sinn Féin believes the secretary of state is merely reaffirming the British government's stance and claims its ideas for overcoming the sensitivities around disclosure have been rejected.
The SDLP argues that Ms Villiers should publish the latest draft of the government's Legacy Bill and ensure victims and survivors are not sidelined in a process the party believes is likely to accelerate after the election.
In addition to legacy matters, the other issue currently exercising the secretary of state is the forthcoming referendum on Britain's EU membership.
Ms Villiers dismisses the notion that a pro-European consensus exists in the north but beyond that observation she is non-committal about whether she will join the 'Brexit' campaign.
She does, however, acknowledge Taoiseach Enda Kenny's right to raise concerns about the impact across Ireland of UK withdrawal from Europe, a point of contention recently for the DUP.
"I believe that obviously the choice rests in the hands of people in the UK but as the leader of our closest neighbour and one of our closest friends I very much welcome Enda Kenny's contribution to the debate," she said.
