A thing I feel I should know

[slemslempike]

The phrase "UK PLC". At first I thought it was a way of moaning about the way the country is run like a business instead of a country (sort of like people saying Bliar instead of Blair), and then I got the impression that UK PLC was an actual thing, like the business arm of the UK, and now I am just confused. It's not a real thing, is it? Googling says that UK PLC is a company that specialises in web domains. I would like to know what people mean when they say it, and also the sort of people that do say it so I can form ill-judged opinions more readily.

Comments

[glitterboy1.livejournal.com]

It usually seems to be used as a collective term for UK companies. (e.g. here). I don't think it's necessarily pejorative.

[Edited because that unclosed parenthesis was going to annoy me.]

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

Bracket problems!

Thanks.

[snowballjane.livejournal.com]

I've found uses of it back to 1985 and at that point it's mostly being used by Conservative chancellors and opinion writers to argue pro-running the country like a business or as a vague metaphor about net flow of money in/out of the country as a profit/loss account. Until the 90s it seems to appear in "scare quotes" in press stories, but gradually just becomes used as a shorthand for "the whole of UK business".

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

Interesting! I have only been aware of it in the last year or so, I had no idea it had a longer history.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Yes, this is very much how I remember it as well. I think even Mrs Thatcher may have used it. She was of course very fond of comparing Britain to a business when she wasn't comparing it to a household ("Any housewife knows that the money you spend on gin can't be spent again on nappies.")

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

Is that an actual quote from her?

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

No! But she did often invoke the thrifty housewife who knew the value of money and had more common sense in her little finger than a summitful of economists.

[wonderlanded.livejournal.com]

I know quite a few civil servants who still refer to it in the original way, I think it's one of those 'work it out by the context' phrases.

[peeeeeeet.livejournal.com]

Yeah I would concur with what other peeps are saying. Now you've got me wondering how appropriate it is - can a nation be "limited liability"? Could shareholders in it lose more than their original stake? I suppose so, but it depends on how you define a shareholder. If it's merely an aggregate of all shareholders then fair enough. But I tend to think of it as describing Britain being run as a business, so it would include public spending and revenue as well...

[cangetmad.livejournal.com]

Could shareholders in it lose more than their original stake?

In that one's original stake is life, to be born in this country (well, most investors/ citizens are), and living under Tory government can be a fate worse than death: yes.

[gair.livejournal.com]

Completely irrelevant, sorry, but did you see this comment on the gendered use of 'fun' in children's advertising over on steepholm's LJ?

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I hadn't! I had vaguely noticed the fun on the girls' section and lack thereof on the boys', but hadn't thought about it very much. I think the commenter's (can't remember her username and can't check as am at work) idea of boys' play being more serious than girls is interesting. From my work, I think that it may also partly be that girls' fun is more commercialised, so that it is encouraged to buy fun rather than just have it. Also that the work of femininity is couched as fun, whereas I think the work of masculinity operates rather differently. Thanks for pointing it out!

[ankaret.livejournal.com]

the work of femininity is couched as fun

I had never thought of it this way before but it is SO TRUE. Hence the, er, spread of things like pole-dancing lessons or getting a facial and your colours done as a suitable activity for a hen weekend. I haven't had anyone suggest that I celebrate their imminent nuptuals by going and getting waxed together yet, but I do wonder if it's only a matter of time.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I think I remember someone on my flist having to go to a burlesque lesson for a hen night. Though that may have been a sadly not too unlikely nightmare.

[ankaret.livejournal.com]

I mostly remember it as a thing that vaguely Jeremy Clarksonish plonkers used to say at parties in the 90s, causing me to back away from them rapidly.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

Ugh. I feel fortunate to have been sheltered from it up to now.

[the_antichris.livejournal.com]

NZ Inc. is a stupid term used by stupid right-wing parties and commentators to say, without actually saying it, 'We should run the country like a business! And fire all unproductive people!' (By sending all elderly people etc. to Stewart Island, one presumes.) 'UK PLC' as a shorthand for 'all UK business' sounds slightly more reasonable.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I hadn't heard of NZ Inc, but it sounds really annoying.