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.