Britain has lost hundreds of thousands of workers, Scotland is the worst off, says Ambassador Chatardová

(from our special correspondent in London)

The British perceive the Czech Republic very well. We have here experts in the field of architecture, prominent doctors, scientists, etc. Growing Czech investment in the UK also contributes to our excellent reputation, whether it is the cooperation between ČEZ and Rolls-Royce regarding small modular reactors, or investments in energy, the post office, football, the food industry or the national lottery.

And you are right that the positive opinion was further increased by our quick reaction to Russian aggression. Together with the British, we were among the first countries to send aid to Ukraine.

We do not notice any significant problems, not even with the language equipment. The vast majority of Czechs who come here are relatively well-equipped in English and integrate into society. Children go to English schools, but many parents with Czech roots also send their children to weekend Czech schools, and expatriate associations that maintain Czech traditions operate in various places in the United Kingdom. Of course, this does not mean that individual Czechs cannot occasionally encounter some obstacles or complications.

Above all, Brexit made it more difficult to work and study in the country. Obtaining a work visa is quite difficult. You must pre-negotiate the so-called sponsorship from your future employer, which will guarantee a salary in some professional professions (high skilled visa) of up to 38,700 pounds per year. Greater restrictions also apply to accompanying family members.

To study, you need a student visa, insurance, you can no longer get a student loan here, and school fees have become significantly more expensive.

But it is also a fact that the combination of Brexit and the pandemic contributed to the fact that there is a labor shortage in the United Kingdom. Approximately 300,000 citizens of the European Union who worked here left. Most of them have not returned and the government is now trying to solve this by simplifying the conditions for issuing visas in some professions, which are the most in short supply. It is primarily about healthcare and the IT sector.

It depends on the field and area. They complain about the greatest shortage of labor in Scotland. There I saw statistics that every fourth company or employer is struggling to find employees. Anyway, there are various retraining programs and both the previous and the current government are trying to solve this problem.

Especially because there is a lack of manpower, especially in the hospitality industry. The number of students from European Union countries at Scottish universities has also decreased. In Edinburgh, almost 75 percent of people voted for the United Kingdom to remain in the EU, so there was great disappointment with the final result.

Nicole Sturgeon strongly believed that a new referendum at a time when her party and she personally had strong support would turn out positively for her vision, because Brexit, which the Scots did not want, changed the situation significantly. However, her political party, SNP (Scottish National Party, editor’s note)was struggling with problems that resulted in a change of leadership, losses in this year’s parliamentary elections, and the independence referendum is now not an immediate priority for the party. Although its representatives still claim that the referendum should be held as soon as the conditions are suitable for it.

No one can objectively answer that. The Scottish National Party prepared a study last year in which it calculated the positives, especially if Scotland would then become a member of the EU. However, there are also completely different analyzes that point to predominantly negative impacts. In any case, it is currently a purely hypothetical question.

Above all, I think that the protests showed how big an impact misinformation can have, because it immediately spread that it was an asylum seeker who reached British territory illegally on a boat. Finally, as you mentioned, this was a person who was already born in Britain. But disinformation and the resulting violent protests spread faster than the subsequent true information. Almost thirteen hundred people were arrested, of which 796 were charged. The government strengthened the police.

Support for the riots was very low in public opinion, but the government’s strong response had high support among the people. Seventy-six percent of people believed that those who caused the violence did not represent the views of the British people, and 86 percent believed that social media was mainly to blame for the spread of the riots.

As for foreign policy, the government is very active and visible there. For us, the most important thing is the so-called reset of relations with the European Union, which the Labor Party already had in the election manifesto. Right after the elections, they came up with the idea of ​​a security pact, which would mean deeper cooperation in issues of security, civil protection of the population, migration, cyber security, energy security. The discussions are in the beginning, but we can certainly see a more accommodating approach to the EU and an effort for greater coordination. On a bilateral level, we have excellent cooperation with the British.

In the media, the issue of small boats arriving through the English Channel, i.e. illegal migration, appears. Over 30,000 people came to Britain in this way this year. The main project of the previous conservative government was the Rwanda scheme. This means that all those who came illegally to British territory should have been deported to Rwanda, where the decision on asylum was to be made, but this was canceled by the Labor government immediately after coming to power.

At the beginning of November, the British Prime Minister announced new measures: the creation of a special unit to coordinate efforts in the fight against people smugglers, an increase in money for the main countries of origin of migration, the conclusion of agreements on cooperation and information exchange with, for example, Turkey, Albania, Serbia, North Macedonia or Kosovo. Prime Minister Starmer emphasizes the need for international cooperation, which he also spoke about at the recent Interpol meeting in Glasgow. Also on readmission agreements.

I found myself a lot in British humor, it is quite similar to the Czech one. And I’m missing only one thing: enough time to implement all the ideas and activities I’d like to do. But that’s not specific only in relation to Britain, I just have it set up like that in my life.

I am very happy about one project that we came up with at the embassy after I joined. It is called Children of Heroes, and it monitors the fate of the descendants of our soldiers who were here during the Second World War. The legacy of these soldiers still resonates strongly in British society. I didn’t want it to disappear over time, so we put a call on the embassy’s website for the children of our heroes who fought here to apply. Most of them returned to Czechoslovakia after the end of the Second World War, but after February 1948 they were persecuted, many emigrated back to the United Kingdom, started a family here, their children are also British citizens.

The response was unexpectedly great, roughly a hundred people responded, living in different corners of Britain. And others are reporting. We go to them and record interviews with them about their parents and themselves. Also about what their Czech roots mean to them, what influence they had or have on their lives. They open their homes, their hearts and memories to us. Their stories are really fascinating. The interviews can be viewed on the social networks of our embassy or on YouTube.

They are all unique. Two interviews that we did not with the children of the heroes, but directly with the heroes were special: with Mr. (Ervín) Hojda, who was 104 when we filmed him, and with Mr. (Charles Gad) Strasser, who was 96.

What impressed me the most was how modest they both were. They responded immediately to the opening sentence that they are heroes: we are not heroes, any person would do the same thing if they were in our place at that time.

Unfortunately, not one of them is with us anymore. I’m glad we managed to have those conversations before they both left us forever. I consider this whole project as my legacy, something that will remain for future generations after I leave London.