IT has been our view throughout the Government's on-going pay dispute with Britain's police officers that Home Secretary Jacqui Smith was in a tight corner.

And though we applaud her for facing her biggest critics at the Police Federation's annual conference yesterday, she had the look of a defenceless victim thrown to the lions and with nowhere to run.

Ms Smith, and the Prime Minister, lost the moral high ground when they failed to honour an agreement to abide by the decision of independent arbitration and refused to backdate a 2.5 per cent pay rise.

The savaging of the Home Secretary at the hands of Police Federation chairman Jan Berry was not a pretty sight. She even had to endure Ms Berry dragging up her past indiscretions with cannabis.

But Jacqui Smith must have known it was coming and her justification for the Government's position remains as weak as it ever was.

We do not support plans for a police strike - but we do understand why officers feel so badly betrayed.

And we continue to believe it is a fight the Government was ill-advised to pick.

Lord of the people

LORD Tom Burlison was a man of great stature here in the North-East. As a professional footballer, union leader and political campaigner, he had many friends and admirers.

It is our sad duty today to report the sudden death of a figure who was universally respected - from ordinary working men at his beloved Hartlepool Football Club, to peers of the realm at the House of Lords.