Woah, my original rant picked up quite a number of sensible responses...
Since the same points were raised multiple times, I'm going to abuse the thread system by answering them once, here.
First off, the hollow (rolled) earth pin. I have to concede that I haven't got a good engineering point against this - it's just an instinctive "eugh" response. Some (poor) arguments against it though:
The finish at the tip is often quite poor, meaning that it has sharp edges (as with the 2 main blades) that snag on things (like inside laptop bags).
The current carrying capacity is lower than it could be. I want to be reassured that the earth pin is going to be able to handle whatever loads it's required to handle in an emergency (which should be some way above the nominal rating of the plug). I guess its capable of handling 15 amps, but it doesn't look like it has a lot of capacity to spare.
As for the blades not going cleanly into the socket, yes, I get this all the time - seems like I'm forever having to "tweak" the spacing between the blades to get them to fit properly.
Intrigued by the poster who stated that the Ozzies have tried to introduce insulation on their blades. Can't see how this would work - either the insulation would have to be really thin (and ineffective), or the socket would have to be made wider (running the risk of foreign objects getting in, since there's no shutter system).
To my mind, you're most likely to touch the half-inserted blades when withdrawing a plug, and your fingertips accidentally curl around the face of the plug. Maybe such momentary contact isn't such an issue with 110v.
But my main argument is that, if you consider the British plug, it consists of some absolutely inspired design decisions - such as the way the cables are routed inside the plug, so that if the cable is forecibly pulled out of the plug, the live is pulled out first, then neutral, then earth. If you look at the
wiki page, then you can see a whole list of safety features that have been engineered in. You may think it's big and clunky, but this is a plug that's had some serious thought put into it.
Whereas the US plug gives the impression that someone, given the brief to design a plug, followed the following process:
Blade for live
Blade for neutral
Job done!
(Followed by the later addition of that nasty earth pin...)