The peak of British engineering was in the 1990s when I briefly lived there, and you could not buy small appliances with a plug attached. You got the bare wire, and you had to buy a separate plug, and connect it yourself at home.
Of course, any rational British person would instantly understand that the best way to ensure safety is to have every single person wiring up every single plug in their house.
That’s a gross over exaggeration. Most electrical equipment did come with a plug. The white appliances that didn’t was because they were kitchen appliances that either wired into a separate ring, or the wire had to be threaded through small gaps in the kitchen cupboards.
For that last point, I’ve often ended up cutting the plug off new kitchen appliances, thread the cable, then wire a new plug afterwards.
The law changed in 1994 requiring appliances to be sold with the plug attached.
Mostly I’m happy about that, but you can’t remove the plug from dead appliances anymore and keep it (along with the 48 other “spares”) now they are all moulded plastic.