Read on, read on...

Headlines and opening sentences (often printed in bold and sometimes called the "lead") of newspaper articles are frequently as far as many readers bother to go, and this can cause problems when the paper uses them to simplify complex issues - people can get the wrong end of the stick.  This arose the other day when in a conversation among friends and family someone criticised the Government for the so-called "bedroom tax".  It wasn't fair, they said, that just because you had spare bedrooms, you would have to pay for them.  And of course nothing could be further from the truth.  What is proposed is that if you are in receipt of housing benefit - in other words part of your rent is being paid by me and the other taxpayers - and you have a spare bedroom or spare bedrooms, your benefit will be cut.  So you won't actually have to pay anything, it's just that the amount you receive from us taxpayers will be less.