Yeah, orange had been better than grey. But I think you should be barking up a tree closer to home:
Andy Wade wrote in uk.d-i-y
"The adoption of grey represents a battle won for the UK by the IEE[*] in CENELEC. The rest of Europe uses various combinations of brown and black for phases. The IEE wanted to keep three distinct colours and proposed grey as the 3rd phase colour. It's now clear that they've got their way.
[*] The joint IEE/BSI national committee (JPEL/64) to be pedantic."
