[regularfry]

The fuse in the plug comes from a history of not wanting everything to blow up in the face of "I spilt my tea into the toaster". Very simple device, probably fine once it's dried out.

But really the value of having the fuse in the plug is that if it blows, the live wire in the cable is definitely disconnected all the way to the wall, so whatever has happened you know as best you can that it's not in a state where it could still get worse.