Paul,
You mentioned that cotton-insulated rubber flex.
We've got
miles of it upstairs at work, in the Electrical store (read:Museum).
I'd agree that replacing a perfectly good plug for one with shielded pins is ludicrious and for what, especially if you haven't got kids.
Besides, even though red/black/green for flexes went out over 30 years ago, most people here still understand it perfectly due the continued use of red and black in fixed house cables.
This is off-topic, but, red and black makes sense, it's just like a battery, red is your positive, black is your negative.
I remember when I first saw a piece of flex with the new colours and thought why?.
