Anyone care to repeat this, guess my trailing socket and/or plug must be defective. Not that much force was applied. Socket has got PMS 9128 written on it, plug has PMS 9248 written on it if any help for identifying the brands.
Plugging plug in backwards in a trailing socket.
- Thread starter eveares
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So if a child/pre teen did that, they would be an idiot?
Something's not quite right there. 
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This has been brought up before it seems there is no rule to require trailing sockets not to allow plug to be put in backwards. There has been a push to change this. The MK sockets need both live pins pushing in together rather than earth pin releasing. But fitted to a wall the earth pin stops them being used that way.
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Do they not have to conform to BS 1363?
Eveares - if you go to Fatally Flawed's website they've got links to a "sister" organisation which looks at things like this - you might as well report it to them.
There is a BS1363/A marking on it as expected, but a marking does not guarantee that it conforms to it.
Could not find the like to the "sister" organisation , but I doubt it's worth reporting - The trailing socket is over 11 years old and has had a fair bit of use over the years.
Indeed not - but it supports/confirms our belief that it is required to comply with BS1363 (which it presumably doesn't).
Kind Regards, John
It doesn't appear to be only an old phenomenon. This is one (BS1363 marked) that 'er indoors bought from Homebase relatively recently (even though it's acquired a fair bit of 'cellar grime' since then!):
Kind Regards, John
That's the other way round - video shows the L&N pins being inserted without the earth pin, resulting in the appliance being connected with reverse polarity (which almost certainly doesn't matter) and no earth connection at all.
Deleted - photo vanished - I'll try again
Yes, I realise that. I should have made it clear that I was illustrating that the more common (and potentially more dangerous) issue is still around. With the Homebase one, in terms of 'fitting', I can do the same, but only after poking something into the earth pin hole to open the shutters:
Kind Regards, John
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On their home page there is a link to here: http://www.fatallyflawed.org.uk/html/links_to_safety_sites.html
Expect that you will now have single pole switches on the Neutral side and no earth like you said.
Thanks BAS.
And when they're just the integral switches in an appliance, far too much fuss is made about this possibility. Years ago many appliances which didn't need an earth and had S.P. switches were used with reversible 2-pin plugs. Many modern appliances in the U.K. are sold in the same basic form across Europe where they are still used with reversible plugs, so there's no way of guaranteeing which side of the supply a single-pole switch will end up in. In some places the appliance may even be used across two phases of a 127/220V system so whichever way it's connected it won't make any difference. It really doesn't matter anywhere near as much as some people have been led to believe.
Being able to plug in without the earth is of much more concern. A properly functioning shutter operated the traditional way from the earth slot would prevent the insertion demonstrated, unless somebody went to the trouble of opening the shutters from the earth with something else first. But you can't guard against everything!
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