To me that reads like an article written by someone trying really hard to defend the U.K. electrical system. UK receptacles and plugs have complex safety features mostly because the UK electrical system is awful. The UK (historically at least) used ring circuits that are fused too high such that an inappropriate resistive load that will not blow the fuse can still overheat the wiring. Hence more fuses than should be needed to partially mitigate the problem.

Modern US receptacles are “tamper resistant” and are required by code in places that kids can get to, and they have similar safety shutters. Unfortunately, many of them, especially the cheaper ones, suck and actively eject plugs.

The lack of insulation on US plugs to prevent shock when plugging and unplugging is a fair criticism. I suspect this is mostly because US prongs are thin and could become too weak if the metal were narrowed to make room for insulation.

Til you step on one face up at 3am when heading to the loo.

Anyone who thinks the English are a reserved polite people has never seen one step on the surprise plug.

??? The UK plug is gargantuan and unwieldy, and the inbuilt fuse a pointless anachronism grandfathered in via historical momentum. The Euro plug is better in every way.

I don't get why this person is being downvoted. He's right. There is such a thing as overengineering, and the UK plug is the poster child.

Did I understand correctly that outlets contain a switch and are off by default and that the grounding pin switches them on when inserting the plug? That's great.

Not an electrical switch. The outlets contain a physical gate over live and neutral that is pushed open by the longer earth pin.

Which means you can use a European plug in a UK socket, if you first put something in the earth slot (a key works well).

European travellers are generally impressed when I show them this trick, and sometimes rightly concerned that I'm sticking metal objects into a power outlet. If there's any chance the outlet is wired incorrectly, don't do this unless you can isolate the outlet or the key.

Yeah I wouldn't rely on things being wired correctly. When I moved into my current UK house the neutral and earth were physically connected (someone had driven a nail through a cable and "got lucky"). Took a while to find the nail and fix that.

Please don't demonstrate this to anyone. It's very difficult to do without damaging the socket.

(Source: frequent socket replacements at a British university.)

The grounding pin also makes electrical contact first, and plugs have a built in fuse as well.

You've never stepped on an UK plug at night, have you?