The rulings of the Parades Commission on the Twelfth of July parades - most of them actually on the 13th this year - show the limitations of the admirable English concept of balance in dealing with the devil's brew of the Northern Ireland marching season.
Although the commission chairman, Mr Alistair Graham, argued carefully and patiently yesterday that he was not "trading" a ban on Orangemen marching down the Garvaghy Road for the lifting of a ban on Orangemen marching down the Lower Ormeau Road, few in the North will believe him.
Instead of appeasing Orangemen, the plainspoken trade unionist from the north of England has outraged both Orange and Green.
He is clearly particularly exasperated with the Orangemen. He asked them on radio to consider the "overwhelming weakness" of their position in refusing to talk either to residents' groups or the Parades Commission.
"How are you going to resolve these issues in the future?" he pleaded. "Because the rest of the population of Northern Ireland are anxious to resolve them in a sensible, tolerant and fair-minded way. If you don't talk to people these things can't happen."
However there is method in the Orangemen's seeming madness. For it becomes clear from a glance at the list of contentious Orange parades early next week that, following the Parades Commission's rulings, there is a risk of serious disruption and violence at a considerable number of them. And, short of some hitherto unforeseen compromise, it looks as though this will be at a time of continuing deadlock at Drumcree. Last year the Orange Order pulled back two days before the "Twelfth" and abandoned parades on the Ormeau Road, in Derry, Armagh and Newry. Traditional flashpoints at Dunloy, Bellaghy and Newtownbutler passed off without serious incident.
This year there are no fewer than 25 contentious parades, with venues ranging from the overwhelmingly Catholic towns of Downpatrick and Castlewellan in the east to overwhelmingly Catholic Strabane in the west. There are also three Catholic residents' protests.
The Parades Commission has clearly thought hard about each potential flashpoint and analyses them in commendable and often brutally honest detail. However in its rulings it is often caught between the Orange rock and the residents' groups' hard place.
In Crumlin, Co Antrim, for example, it says that "to interfere with a traditional parade which occurs only every 14 years" could have "the most destructive impact on relationships within the community". It does not point out that in that time the proportion of Catholics in the large village near Lough Neagh has grown considerably, swollen by large numbers of migrants from west Belfast.
In Lurgan, Co Armagh, the commission concedes that there is potential for "public disorder and . . . adverse impact on relationships within the community" if the Orange bands parade along largely nationalist William Street. It then allows the parade to go ahead, with conditions.
In Pomeroy - a large village with very poor community relations - the Commission bans 7,000 Tyrone Orangemen from the main street. In Keady, Co Armagh - another largely Catholic village - it bans the local Orangemen from marching back through the centre on their return from the parade in Lurgan.
Anyone involved in maintaining law and order in Northern Ireland will be facing the next week with grim foreboding.
