In general, almost all of the classic plugs in northern Europe suffer from historic limitations.
They are too bulky, because historically they were designed when isolation material was not that good and much less mechanically robust. These days one could build much smaller, lighter socket/plug types. Multiple socket outlets are a pain because of the bulkiness.
A bunch of the existing sockets are mechanically too complex. With complexity comes higher failure rates. The British socket being one of these, with the mechanical lock via the earthing pin, or the German with a recessed socket and spring earthing contacts.
The insertion/removal forces widely vary for the same socket type, depending on the manufacturer, age, and the phase of the moon. What non of the classic socket/plug types have is an easy insertion, easy release system, with a lock-in-place (but which would make them more complex). This is important for disabled persons and if you have an ageing population.
Back to the British system.
The requirement for fuses because of the ring wiring is annoying. The fuses are not there to protect people, they are there to protect the kettle lead. Something the normal fuse/breaker does equally good in non ring-wired installations. The fuses in fact give an additional point for tampering (replace it with a nail ...), and it is much easier and more tempting to do so than tampering with the breaker in the panel.
The polarized plug gives a false sense of safety. If a switch in some equipment is off it does not guarantee there is no voltage any more present in the equipment. There is at least voltage up to the switch. And if the switch happened to be wired wrongly, switching the neutral, you still have a life circuit. To be on the safe side you have to treat any equipment as if the plug is not polarized. I.e. don't trust the equipment's switch, unplug the equipment.
The earth shutter don't make the system idiot proof. It just requires a better idiot. Stick something in where the earth pin goes, and you can stick in everything you like in phase and neutral. And plugs without an earth pin can still have a shutter system. Either requiring a higher insertion force, requiring an equal insertion force being present on the neutral and life entry, or requiring additional mechanical action, like having to twist the plug with the two pins a little bit in the socket. All such systems can be circumvented by a better idiot.
Oh, and by the way, Britain, including Scotland, is in Europe, and the British plug is therefore a European plug. No need to bash all European plugs if one European plug, the British one, is so superior.
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