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Your worship is accepted McQueen.

Joe, where would I be without your wise grammatical advice? Can you be of any help with the Kaz tax system?

Using the rates below 21% of $114 is $23.94 whereas 17% of $85 is $14.45, a a difference of $9.49 per barrel in the "rent" tax which doesn't relate to the calculations in the Investor Presentation in any way. The presentation suggests a difference of only $1.3 per barrel.

Either the rates are out of date, my understanding of the how the tax system works is skewiff ( I think that's how you spell it) or the Investor presentation is b*&&*^"x

DM, I know sytems is incorrect.

The odd thing about the net calculations in the investor presentation is that at a price of $114 a barrel, tax is $36.4 (31.9% of the price), whereas at $85 a barrel it is $35.1 (41.3% of the price). Tax sytems can work this way of course, but if so it is a rather strange tax design.

It was quite easy to find.
7% up to $50
11% up to $60
14% up to $70
16% up to $80
17% up to $90
19% up to $100
20% up to $110
21% up to $120
https://assets.ey.com/content/dam/ey-sites/ey-com/en_kz/topics/oil-and-gas/ey-kazakhstan-oil-and-gas-tax-guide-2021.pdf

Thanks. I hadn't got around to reading that yet. It's difficult to extrapolate from the examples because the tax rates are quite nonlinear and you need to know the points at which the rates shift above $50 when the export rate kicks in. This "rent" tax ranges from 7% to 32% There's not much difference in tax paid between $114 example and the $85 example. Perhaps the rate drops sharply below this point. I would have a look, but I am just off on holiday

Somm, thanks for the calculations. Where did you get the netbacks from and what was the price of oil then?

DM, thank you for saying what I often think. But then I look at the spelling mistakes and grammatical errors in my own posts and think better of it! Post carefully in the next few days.

I'm a strong believer in the c*?k up theory of history. Conspiracies are so last year.

Come on, own up. Who was the 0.1% who voted against?

This barely counts as an RNS. More of a distant wave from some one who is glad they don't have to talk to you. Did anyone actually go to the meeting?

MRIs, scanners, radiotherapy equipment, beds, wards,nursing paramedic and medical training for homegrown staff. All examples of investments that would improve the NHS irrespective of the IT system (which I believe works better these days).Spending on properly paid domiciliary social care staff to allow elderly patients to leave hospital. We live in an ageing society and NHS and social spending has got to rise further, even with efficiency gains.

Perhaps there will be an RNS in the morning after all and we can get back to talking about CASP!

I thought you guys were just being really complimentary about UK universities (public sector) and defence (public sector) a few posts ago.If you want to see how private sector healthcare works, look at the USA with very similar health outcomes to the UK but spending over 50% more as a percentage of GDP. As I said earlier, the NHS scores best on value for money. Of course more efficiency could be squeezed out of the system, but investment would be needed. What we need is more spending on staff and equipment. The link below dates back to 2015 but shows the main picture clearly
https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/blog/2018/05/nhs-international-spending#&gid=1&pid=1

A more up to date but more detailed account is found here:
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/healthcaresystem/articles/howdoesukhealthcarespendingcomparewithothercountries/2019-08-29

I've stopped 2019 because the pandemic distorts comparisons and all health systems across the world are in varying degrees of crisis.

Since we have had no RNS today to accompany the meeting I am assuming we will just have to wait until September/October when they have to get in touch with us anyway. Until then the sp will probably drift even though we know the cash is piling up and a divi is affordable. Very frustrating but nothing we can do about it.

PS Apologies Somm. I was just replying out of politeness. I was expecting to have to apologise at some point so I'm quite glad to have it out of the way!

I am fairly widely travelled. I have not been to Russia or China, although in the 90s I did teach some Russians over here to gain experience on the stock exchange, and also some Chinese civil servants at regional level. I also taught Real Estate students in Poland. I have been to the USA and Canada several times and have travelled widely in the Middle East, the sub-continent and South East Asia.

Presumably you are asking me this question to find out if I have any direct experience of the things I am talking about. Could I politely ask you what your corresponding experience might be?

Oh and also the phrase "our Commonwealth" is a tad colonial. If it is to be a Common Wealth it needs to belong equally to all its participating nations and not just to the UK. This is the only basis on which it is likely to remain viable in the longer term, a good transition point coming when King Charlie takes over. Well you can hope!

I appreciate your pride in our nation McQueen, and share much of it, but some realism is also needed. There are a couple of misleading comments mixed in with the good points. We are not the 5th richest nation on earth, but only the 5th largest. We actually come about 25th in per capita income measured at purchasing power parity. This one is a commonly fallacy repeated by politicians of all colours and the media so that many people have come to believe it.

The pride in the NHS is also one I share but unfortunately underfunding over many years has left us with health outcomes which are substantially worse than many European nations. It still tends to come high on the value for money criterion.

The decline of manufacturing is another problem that needs to be reversed. Our persistent Balance of Payments deficit over decades has been funded by the sale of our economy to foreign firms and sometimes foreign governments (e.g. Norway, Saudi, EDF) which makes us vulnerable. The successful Finance industry has facilitated this development.

Nationalism is a fine sentiment but it needs to be tempered by realism. A domestic green industrial revolution would be a good partial solution to some of these problems.

The fact is that Russians rig elections and that many people boycott their referendums. The referendums in any case take place after many of the population have fled. The war in the Donbas was Russian sponsored and the Wagner group were heavily involved. It is all about the Czar Putin who thinks of himself as the new Peter the Great.

Before the war 74% of the Donbas were Russian speaking but that is because a lot of the ethnic Ukrainians are bilingual. As a result of the war many ethnic Russians are learning Ukrainian. The languages are quite far apart within the Slavic language group.
Many Russians support the war although they are not properly informed because of severe restrictions on media freedoms. There may be a nostalgia for Empire in the emotional make-up of this support. Nostalgia for Empire is not entirely absent from UK politics either!

Russia and the UK have one thing in common: they have both seen an end to Empire. We're further along the in process but like Russia there are all kinds of anomalies and historical curiosities and people have moved around so that there are no simple solutions. There was however a majority of ethnic Ukrainians in the Donbas area before the war. There was a majority of Russians in the Crimea, although the displacement of the Tatars contributed to this. The Russians did however agree to the territory of Ukraine as it was before 2014 in return for Ukraine givingup their nuclear weapons.