Peter Brooke, Baron Brooke of Sutton Mandeville

As Northern Ireland Secretary, Brooke said in a November 1990 speech that Britain had 'no selfish strategic or economic interest' in Northern Ireland, a sentence aimed at republicans that undercut the IRA's claim to be fighting a colonial power. He also reopened a secret back channel to the republican leadership and launched the inter-party talks of 1991 on the three-strand basis. His quiet approach laid ground that his successors built on.