She could have exercised her right to remain silent. She could have refused to answer any questions in the absence of her lawyer.

Instead Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, tried a spot of good old-fashioned political bribery on the 1,000 police officers who interrogated her today.

Delegates at the Police Federation conference in Bournemouth played good cop, bad cop with Ms Smith for an hour.

The good bit was that, beyond a little jeering, there was no protest to reflect the enormous anger felt by police over Ms Smith's refusal to honour their annual pay award in full. They even gave her a muted round of applause.

The bad bit emerged in the vehemence of their remarks and the aggressive nature of some of their questions.

"You cheated and now it's time for you to pack your bags and leave," Mark Crake, a Metropolitan Police officer told her. Ian Pointer from Kent Constabulary asked: "Did you deliberately set out to anger and alienate the entire police service?"

Jan Berry, the federation chairwoman, let Ms Smith know that the officers were aware she had a bit of previous - with a pointed aside mentioning her admission that she tried cannabis as a student.

"Your recent crimes," said Mrs Berry, "have been more for the Serioud Fraud Office than the drugs squad."

Ms Smith sat stony-faced through the worst of it before telling the police a few things they wanted to hear.

She announced a change to police pension arrangements, revealing that the Treasury had agreed to increase lump sum payments to retiring officers. Ms Smith said later that the change would cost £100 million but in the long-run, pension experts said, the change would prove "cost neutral" for the Government.

There was also an announcement of backdated pension payments for the widows and widowers of officers who died in the line of duty. Previously their pensions were stopped if they remarried.

Ms Smith also appeared to say that he would pay the disputed wage rise if the High Court rules next month that she acted illegally. Later, however, she indicated that she would follow the judicial process, raising the prospect of an appeal if she lost.

Unless that court ruling comes out against her, the furious dispute over pay that has poisoned relations between the police and Government for six months seems to be coming to an end.

Ms Smith clearly thinks so. Having braced herself for a punishing session before the rank and file conference she appeared relieved at the end. "I think they gave me a pretty fair hearing," she said.

They hope that she too was listening when Mrs Berry told her that the Government needed to "rebuild trust" with the men and women who make up the thin blue line.

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