The guy was 32....He hadn't been in school in decades, this story was also not from the USA...so while you're rant on no child left behind may be correct....this has nothing to do with the USA OR current curricula. Might as well yell at clouds.
I missed the London bit when I read it (age should not be an excuse, particularly for anyone growing up in the mid 1970s or later in the US at which point code demands GFCI in bathrooms), yes, but even so you're saying they don't have the equivalent of GFCI outlets in the UK? A quick search implies the availability (at least) of RCD outlets (more or less works the same thing as GFCI in the USA), although it would appear they typically use 30ma instead of 5ma, which seems more for equipment and really isn't as good of protection for humans against shock as 5ma, which is typically the level above which you begin to have trouble letting go and muscle tissue damage can occur, but 30ma is better than nothing (100ma is typically the danger level for your heart, although that is generally based on 120, not 240).
The hotel I stayed at in London last year had an auto-switching 120/240 shaving outlet (which oddly enough I used to charge my phone since I didn't have a 240 converter) and now I have to wonder if it had any protection at all on it (search implies transformer isolated and low-amp fuse in the hundres of ma range). It would seem UK bathrooms aren't typically allowed anything but a low-current shaving outlet ANYWHERE and typically required the use of pull-chains for lights to protect against shock rather than any type of RCD/GFI. If you want regular light switches, the switch needs to be outside the bathroom (the hotel bathroom did have the switches for it on the outside).
I guess the UK hasn't heard of modern technology that makes your bathroom better (outlets are handy everywhere) and safer (GFCI pretty much makes outlets in a bathroom perfectly safe) and this poor wally wouldn't have been dragging extension cords into the bathroom in the first place.
UK bathrooms tend not to have any high current electrical power points except for lightbulbs for precisely the reason highlighted by the story here. Building regulations forbid adding any and even mandate a minimum distance between any light socket and source of water. At most, you may find a low current shaver socket but those are mostly in hotels and the two pin socket for those will not fit UK or continental plugs - just the slightly narrower ones found on electrical shavers.
Tourists and expats do complain - particularly from the US, since drying one's hair in the bathroom with an electric hairdryer seems to be a thing over there.
I stayed at the Apex (near Tower Bridge) last year and it had a 120/240 "shaving" outlet that was enough to use a US charging cord (older lower current one anyway) for a phone. I knew about it before I even went there as carrying a 240 to 120V converter is heavy (and good ones aren't cheap) and could have pushed my suitcase into a higher category.
That was handy, but I can see why tourists (well women anyway) would complain. That's what the GFCI was invented to do, protect in bathrooms and other wet (e.g. outdoor) locations. They've been mandatory for outside and bathrooms since about 1973/1976 respectively in the USA. A hair dryer dropped into a bucket of water (with and without a GFCI) was actually a demonstration in my 1st year AC/DC circuits course. Without the GFCI the hair dryer continued to run underwater! With the GFCI, it stopped instantly. I certainly feel better with them around. Since 1996, they're required in kitchen environments as well in the USA. Some states might have more stringent requirements yet (e.g. California), but having no outlet seems a bit extreme and clearly led this guy to cheat with an extension cord and it cost him his life. I'd argue the UK should move to allowing GFCI/RCD outlets in the bathroom. It's better to have safe outlets than drive people to get around it with extension cords.
