There's also no real reason to unplug something, even if the plug isn't switched. Modern electrical appliances have idle power draws of less than a watt.

Rule of thumb: If a small electronic appliance (e.g. phone charger, power brick etc...) isn't warm to the touch, it's using less than 1 Watt of power, which at UK electric prices, is less than half a penny per 24 hours.

If you value your own time at UK minimum wage, and it takes you 5 seconds to unplug, and 5 seconds to replug, you won't break even unless you keep it unplugged for at least 7 days. So maybe worth it if you're going on holiday. As an everyday thing, unplugging idle electronics to save power is a complete waste of time.

As for electrical safety, generally speaking if something is unsafe whilst plugged in but switched off, it's typically not legal to sell in countries with properly enforced standards anyway. And with whole house RCD protection being relatively universal in western europe, even if something were to go wrong, chances are the RCD, or AFCI if the breaker panel is real fancy, will stop the bad thing happening real quick.

Oh and quick PSA: Regardless of it's whole house protection, or individual socket protection, you should test the function of your RCDs every now and again. Officially at least once a month. Every RCD breaker has a little button somewhere labeled "test", that connects L to GND across a resistor, to check if the breaker actually does it's job. If you've never done this (and haven't recently had the RCD trip for an actual fault) GO DO IT NOW. THOSE THINGS ARE LITERALLY LIFE SAVERS AND IT'S IMPORTANT TO MAKE SURE THEY'RE ACTUALLY WORKING.

Boy I bet youre fun at parties

I think the switches are nice but in the modern world you really don't need to unplug a vast majority of things. Even my $30 120V USA space heater shuts itself off if it tips over or gets too hot. My cell phone charger pulls functionally 0W while idling.

They do some things right in the UK. But does every toilet need to be hidden in a basement labyrinth?

Lego vs Legos appears to be another North America vs The rest of the English speaking world thing. A collective noun feels weird to my American ears since they are individual pieces that are countable. It's not a big deal though. I enjoy having different ways of talking.

But what about when you need to plug your hair dryer in and need to remove a lamps plug and it ends up on the floor and then you get a knock at the door and its your friend and you go out and forget all about it until you get home and completely fuck your own feet

it's sheeple.

Which makes it extra amusing to me that they coat the pins or whatever with plastic so you cant accidentally touch live while inserting it.

this is something I've heard a lot from people in the UK, do UK electronics not have switches on them or something? all electronics I've ever seen living in the US have a power switch on them, do you think we unplug our stuff to turn them off?