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.]

[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".

[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...

[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?

[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.

[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.