u wot m8? bri'ish plugs best in the world, not that you bloody yanks would understand.

But in all seriousness they are comprehensively safer. The earthing and exposed live benefits are shared by most EU plugs, but as a bonus you've got:

- Built in fuse that can be sized to the appliance, not the socket

- Sliding gates on live and neutral that stop your 5 year old jamming a fork in there

- The gate is moved by the earth pin, ensuring it's long enough to make first contact

- An internal wiring arrangement that avoids floating the whole appliance at live if a cable is forcibly ripped out

Yes, it's a bit bigger but I can't recall this having caused even one dead child worth of inconvenience across my life.

They are however, even worse than Lego to step on in the night. I'll concede that as their one true weakness