Boris gets the check book out.

[darmstadt]

You could always **** off back to your precious Netherlands.

Ooooh, channeling your inner Farage there...

[Eirikur]

You could always **** off back to your precious Netherlands.

Ofcourse little xenophobe, racist and fascist, I could, but show me one post where I say The Netherlands is precious to me

[Zigenare]

Ooooh, channeling your inner Farage there...

Not really, if your Dutch mate wants to spend his life slagging off the UK then why not do it from the warmth of his own hearth.

And Eirikur, for the record, it's not because you're foreign, it's because you're a ****.

[Eirikur]

Ooooh, channeling your inner Farage there...

Even Farage queued up at the German embassy to request German passports for his kids. more channeling his mate Tommy Robinson

[meridian]

In the UK many devices don't actually connect to the 3rd pin. It isn't necessary for safety purposes if the device is insulated.

2 pin plugs also have an earth connection, it's just they use clips either side of the plug instead of a pin.

No difference with respect to safety.

That correlates with a wee bit of Googling on the subject. Other posters seemed certain that there was a difference though, hence the question.

On the face if it, the “superior standards” of the U.K. 3-pin plug looks like another fallacy that doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.

[BR14]

Not really, if your Dutch mate wants to spend his life slagging off the UK then why not do it from the warmth of his own hearth.

And Eirikur, for the record, it's not because you're foreign, it's because you're a ****.

as i have remarked, on several occasions

[Bean]

Thanks for that. Is that necessarily true, though? What you appear to be saying is that a child can safely stick a fork into a U.K. socket and not be electrocuted?

Yes.

Go have a look at a UK plug, whilst paying close attention to the bottom two holes - now stick a fork in the top hole and watch as magic happens before your eyes.

The top hole is a safety device, that when the top prong is inserted, elevates the safety barriers in the bottom 2 holes, to allow the bottom 2 prongs to make a circuit.

So yes, the UK plug is objectively safer than the 2 hole equivalent.

Perhaps on the continent, they're using it as a form of Darwinian selection for children?

[meridian]

Yes.

Go have a look at a UK plug, whilst paying close attention to the bottom two holes - now stick a fork in the top hole and watch as magic happens before your eyes.

The top hole is a safety device, that when the top prong is inserted, elevates the safety barriers in the bottom 2 holes, to allow the bottom 2 prongs to make a circuit.

So yes, the UK plug is objectively safer than the 2 hole equivalent.

Perhaps on the continent, they're using it as a form of Darwinian selection for children?

Yep, I’d popped off for a lunchtime wander and was thinking about it and came to the same conclusion while I was thinking through what you were saying originally.

While the electrical safety of equipment is the same (given the same grounded pins and equipment), it’s the third pin that prevents the other two from opening, so even those plugs with a plastic third pin play a part in the safety - thanks for that.

There’s probably a limitation of risk factor given the round two-pin plugs are smaller in pin diameter than the fat rectangular U.K. ones. So there’s possibly an argument to be made that a three-pin round plug with smaller pins is even safer.

Or perhaps children on the Continent just don’t stick objects into plug holes nearly as often as U.K. children...

[Eirikur]

Not really, if your Dutch mate wants to spend his life slagging off the UK then why not do it from the warmth of his own hearth.

And Eirikur, for the record, it's not because you're foreign, it's because you're a ****.

We've seen your record, you're a bloody xenophobe

[Zigenare]

We've seen your record, you're a bloody xenophobe

So, you think I'm a xenophobe, do you have any evidence to back up this claim? Other than I voted Brexit and I think you're a ****?