Mostly the former. The UK is going through a xenophobic phase and an anti-science phase. So no foreign scientist who's done their research will be moving here. We've also cut a whole bunch of science funding. This is also supposed to be the easiest visa to apply for (one application, no need for sponsorship, clear criteria for eligibility).
Covid and the fact anyone here can stay easily likely hasn't helped. But we're certainly not attracting anyone new.
No doubt some of the previous funding schemes from the EU don't exist anymore. That is however different that some sort of explicit agenda to undermine science.
To be honest, this reads like you are pushing a nihilistic agenda.
> No doubt some of the previous funding schemes from the EU don't exist anymore
Horizon was (and is) huge. Honestly, I never had a research project in the UK without some support from it, so it's a very big deal for scientists to no longer have access (particularly as they access would have come if there hadn't been such terrible political mood music).
I have traveled in UK extensively this summer since my wife and her family are from there and my experience (as a turban wearing brown dude) has been quite the opposite.
There is way less toxicity in terms of culture war (as long as you don’t live your days reading The Sun or Guardian) and the people generally are very polite and respectful of your background. I think UK Govt has done a far better job in vaccination and earning public trust than US public health officials. The debates around lockdown are also quite nuanced and can be had without my way or high way attitude you see in many US states.
I visited Oxbridge and I don’t think there is any shortage of diverse talent pool there ,compared to say 10 yrs ago it is certainly more diverse now.
UK wasn’t seeing some of the crazy supply chain issues we were seeing, for example in US we couldn’t even rent a car, whereas in UK that wasn’t such an issue.
All of these are anecdotes of course.
That said I think UK has been experiencing much of the same problems structurally- loss of jobs in midland, high housing prices, increasing cost of healthcare funded by taxpayers with NHS which has pretty poor services at this point due to being way beyond capacity.
Covid and the fact anyone here can stay easily likely hasn't helped. But we're certainly not attracting anyone new.