The 200k/year requirement feeds into the incomes discussion in other ways. Take today's scandal of Malcolm Rifkind, complaining that £67k is "not enough to live on".
Rifkind earns £67,000 as an MP, a further £14,876 as chair of the ISC and received £270,868 in directorships and consultancies between January 2014 and January 2015. (Guardian)
Rifkind's party instituted the "bedroom tax", taking ~£25/week off many people who were living on benefits and who have now been pushed below the breadline, resulting in a number of suicides and deaths of disabled people due to malnutrition.
One one level, MPs are perhaps not paid enough to not need outside payment. On another, we're constantly told that "austerity" is so necessary that we must withdraw the tiny amount of money that is keeping many people alive.
Rifkind earns £67,000 as an MP, a further £14,876 as chair of the ISC and received £270,868 in directorships and consultancies between January 2014 and January 2015. (Guardian)
Rifkind's party instituted the "bedroom tax", taking ~£25/week off many people who were living on benefits and who have now been pushed below the breadline, resulting in a number of suicides and deaths of disabled people due to malnutrition.
One one level, MPs are perhaps not paid enough to not need outside payment. On another, we're constantly told that "austerity" is so necessary that we must withdraw the tiny amount of money that is keeping many people alive.