That just goes to illustrate the perils of the British/Commonwealth systems usiung blue as both phase C and neutral in different circumstances. Maybe those who don't really know what they're doing shouldn't be messing around with the wiring, but we all know that they're going to anyway..... [Linked Image]

I think that when the standardized European colors were being agreed upon that the committees should have chosen something other than blue for neutral, and preferably a "neutral" color such as black, white, or gray.

Looking at ECN's compiled list of colors then in cmmon use, I think I might have voted for gray. Black was neutral in the UK and Ireland, but a phase most everywhere else, so that's out. White was used as neutral in some places, but had only just been taken out of British regs. as an acceptable phase color a few years earlier.

Gray was already in use as neutral in several countries and appears to have not been used as a phase elsewhere at that time.