Whose country is this, anyway?

I returned from a visit to America over the weekend. After landing at Gatwick, we had to walk about a mile to reach the Passport Control. Now, the walk didn't bother me. After 8 hours on a plane, it was a relief to get the legs moving again .
What exercised me more was a bloody great sign at Passport Control that informed me and everyone else that we were approaching the "United Kingdom Border".
What is that all about?
Is it there in case people might mistake London Gatwick for Lisbon or Port of Spain- or wherever it is they are flying to ?
I don't think so.
Or might its real purpose be to demonstrate that we - by which I mean the Government - are "doing something"?
That's probably more likely.
This administration may not be able to expel foreign murderers and rapists; they certainly can't keep track of legions of 52 year old Iranians entering the country to study Computer Sciences and then forgetting to leave once their visas expire. In fact, there isn't a great deal of anything particularly useful they can achieve at all when it comes to keeping immigrant numbers to tolerable levels.
But they can erect a bloody great sign that wouldn't have looked out of place in some outpost of the old Soviet Empire, to reassure the natives that they are indeed, Doing Something. What is really strange and something that neither the Immigration Service or the Home Office seem able to explain, is the location of the sign.
If the UK Border starts at the Passport Control desks, what is the great swathe of Gatwick that you have to cross before you reach " the Border"?
No Man's Land, perhaps.

As a footnote, if anyone reading this happens to be of non-GB extraction and want a simple way to get to stay perfectly legally once you are in the UK, irrespective of your eligibility, here's all you need to do.
Get down to Oxford Street in London and simply hang around for a while. Fairly soon you will be approached by a young person waving a sheath of handbills Take one. You'll find it's from some sort of Language School or other offering you an English language course for the knock-down, never-to-be-repeated price of £350. Go along, register at the school, pay them the money and Hey Presto, you're suddenly a bona fide student, eligible for a Student Visa and, as things stand, eventual full-time residence in the UK. If you are really lucky, you'll never even have to attend a single class.
It beats the hell out of all of the hoops you have to jump through to be allowed to stay in any other country in the developed world doesn't it?