Ref "working from home" :
Does the mortgage stipulate that your domestic premises can be used as an office? Usually a business morgage is more expensive. (I've been there, done that).
If you're using your home as an office then you should expect to pay business rates on your telephone and other utilities. Additionally what portion of the utilities has the company you work for stated they will pay?
Fortunately the vast majority of banks, building societies, and utility companies have more common sense than to attempt to charge people differently if they use some of the service provided to them domestically for the benefit of their employment.
No organisation I've been employed by has ever offered to pay part of my utilities bills, although in the early days some of my older colleagues got a 'telephone allowance' if they were on an on-call rota. That was phased out as they retired.
It is all part of the quid pro quo of flexible working. I never minded using some of the electricity I pay for at home to charge my work mobile - and in return wouldn't have expected to be disciplined or sacked if I plugged my personal phone in to charge at work.
MPs and civil servants work for the people, thus they are employees of the people.
No, they really aren't. As a long-time local government manager it was really tiresome dealing with entitled people demanding a member of my team should do what they were told (by the entitled person) because "I pay your wages" or "You work for me". The lack of respect shown by people demanding this or that was quite remarkable.
In days of yore neither MPs nor town councillors were paid for the hours they worked, nor for their expenses.
1911 was when MPs started to be paid. Up to that point it was assumed MPs would be self-funding, and therefore the role was effectively self-limiting to wealthy men who could afford to do so.
I think the majority of the population would agree the modern approach is superior and not wish to go back to those days.
The role of local government councillors has also changed. Historically they would only attend occasional meetings and have limited (usually postal) correspondence with their constituents. Now many councillors are in executive roles within the council structure, and phone and internet communication has enabled all constituents to have virtually 24/7 direct contact with their councillor. It isn't the same 'job' as it was in days of yore.
Practically every decade they dip their hands even further into our pockets. One example being the £10K per annum each MP receives from the public purse to pay for their own IT page. Previous to this MPs had a free write up in their daily newspaper extolling their virtues and the opposition's failures.
The pay and expenses of MPs are determined by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA), not by the MPs themselves. Members of the public are entitled to make representations to IPSA if they disagree with any specific aspect of the scheme, or to the idea of MPs being paid at all. More info here...
https://www.parliament.uk/about/mps-and-lords/members/pay-mps/
