Andy Dingley wrote:


All the other stupidities of this regulation pale into insignificance
compared to the idea of a black phase.

Not the way I see it. Firstly, there's no direct link between the
ineffectual Part P and the adoption of Euro-harmonised colours. The
sleight of hand used to "justify" part P (misstating stats on fatalities
through fixed wiring) where the actual aim is bringing work out of the
informal sector is the bit that gets up my nose most, closely followed
by the disincentive created to doing the job right (trailing extension
leads and adds-to-existing-circs in place of sensible upgrades).

If you read the stuff on the IEE website about cable-colour
harmonisation, the reasoning's pretty clear: the UK is firmly out of
sync with the rest of the EU having argued to retain red-n-black for
fixed wiring when the original change to brown-n-blue went through about
20? years ago. Rather than face the arguments all over again as the
exemption expired, the change for single-phase to be consistent with
flex colours was accepted, for reasons of consistency both across the
Single Market and within the UK between flex and fixed cable.

Then you're left with "what to do about 3-phase". Again the material on
the IEE website from the CENELEC(?) consultation lays out the reasoning
pretty clearly: there was considerable variation across Europe, but with
a common theme of red and black in various mixtures, stripings, and the
like being dominant. CENELEC were just about to plump for brown, black,
black as the colours for the 3 phases (many, possibly most, countries
left identification of phases to test gear rather than cable core
colouring), and it was UK argument to preserve distinction among all
three phase colours which won the day; grey being one of the few
available colours which didn't clash dangerously with other countries'
conventions. The "black as legit phase colour" idea stood *no* chance of
being overturned, being dominant practice for at least one, often two or
three, phases.

But hey, I'm just back from a day in Brussels with the Commission - so
my allegiances are profoundly suspect anyway, right? ;-)

Stefek