Naive electricity supply question ...

Not necessarily so because the speed of the action of the side cutters would just be that of a switch closure.

I use a good quality Multimeter, currently (no pun intended) a Fluke 73

Yawn. I suggest you have a cup of warm Ovaltine, a couple of paracetamol and go back to bed.

Socket has a fault, and doesn't manage to switch the live, only the neutral. Things plugged into it stop working, so you think you are safe as the power is off. But actually everything is still live.

Andy

Or if the neon screwdriver has remained in a pocket during a trip through a washing machine and is now flooded with soapy/dirty water. (Yes it is painful)

Hardly infeasible, more inadvisable.

The facts is even our nanny state regulations do not mandate it, so it can't be a particularly egregious practice to have SP everywhere.

I take that's your MO?

I don't like Ovaltine and generally spend my time in bed during conventional hours, with certain exceptions of fulfilment with the right company.

And how are you going to hold on to the ladder if trying to use a device which requires two hands to use it? And what if you don't notice the ladder rung is half-rotted through and fails just as you stand on it, and you fall. I'm also sure you have a good reason to be touching the water pipe while checking the wire, but can't see why.

I can dream up any number of theoretical situations which would have, shall we say, negative circumstances, but if that were the case in relation to neon screwdrivers the first question to ask would be "why haven't they been banned if they're so unsafe?".

A GS38? See below.

The subject is covered pretty well here:

He seems to agree there can be issues, but overall they're better than nothing if used with care. He also doesn't seem keen on the GS38 as it might not make contact, and give the impression there is no voltage when the wire is, in fact, live.

From a ladder safety point of view, you are supposed to have aminimum of 3 limbs in contact with the ladder.

Because we are British

Something like:

I did some experimentation, and found even if you try very hard they are remarkably difficult to fool:

Are you suggesting that if I short the mains with a switch there will be no sparks, heating, fault current flow because the switch closes quickly?

You say some powerfully dumb stuff!

high. It's inherent in how they work. If you want to rely on 1 or 2 or 100, good luck. In their main failure modes they all fail the same way the same time.

put one arm through the ladder

has happened many times, it's one reason why most folk use ali ladders now

ali ladders readily touch metal things in use. Skin readily touches ali ladders.

they are banned from use at work for safety reasons. As someone said, they're better than nothing, maybe why they're still permitted for diyers

In photo number 4, it looks like the safety shutters on the live and neutral pins on that double socket have been removed, but the one in the earth pin is still visible.

How close to the socket pins does this thing need to get in order to detect a voltage ?.

I use them because they are a lot lighter, yet less bouncy.

Until recently, my parents still had a set of wooden ladders. They were incredibly heavy - they bought them brand new, but as scrap in the late '70s. They'd been bought by British Railways Overhead Line division - only for the unions to declare that wooden ladders were not to be used, only aluminium. Loads of sets of very good quality wooden ladders immediately declared scrap and sold off for a fiver.

Hotspur: "Why, so can I, or so can any man; But will they come when you do call for them?"

On mine, probably within 3/4" of something live - the photo is probably showing closer than is required...

(they are probably showing it closer than needs be in that photo)