It's AC. Polarity doesn't generally matter.

Bridge rectifiers are also not polarized to convert AC to DC.

In terms of physics, AC doesn't have polarities. Treat both the live and the neutral wire as if it were live. You don't know what kind of psychopath wired the building.

What's great is that it's also "backwards-compatible" with type E. Male type E plugs will usually also have ground connections for a type F, so you can plug it into female E and F sockets.

Edit: In fact, looking back at the picture, that's exactly the kind of male plug shown for both type E and F. It works with both types. It has the hole for an earth prong, but it also has a contact on the bottom side if you look closely.

and then have to spend time figuring out which device on that circuit actually has the fault.

Usually that happens just when you plug it in so...

Why would I want a whole circuit to be cut because of a single device fault

Dunno, if I have a fault in my home, I want it to be spectacular.

A couple of years ago I literally had massive blood pressure and walked like 2 km to go buy a box of fuses.

Burning two fuses, I figured out one of the extension strips was bad.

If I plug something in and half of my apartment goes black, TWICE, and needs a fuse replacement each time, maybe that thing needs to be tossed anuway. I'm no electrician, I can't troubleshoot a power strip. It has served its years. Bye.

That’s neat. I can remember maybe one or two instances in my life, where that could have been useful. The rest of the time, I much prefer smaller plugs that I can plug in upside down and a home electrical network with good wiring.

I would have thought two pin plugs are easily to break. I’ve not broken a British plug in 40 years of life.

Anyway I’m not trying to debate this. There are plenty of resources online where electricians discuss the different plug types and the order is typically UK, Germany, and Australia.