I'm about due an entry here.
I put the lawnmower cable in through the open kitchen window, to plug in via a safety circuit breaker and a kitchen socket as usual, walked back out round the house, ear defenders and sunglasses on, connected mower and - mower not spooling up on command.
Switchy - switchy, inspect and wiggle the connector again. Still no go. Did I switch the mains on? Yes, I remember doing that. Goes back to have another look. Yup, it,s on, and I tested and reset the breaker. Gave the breaker a firm push in case everything wasn't quite in. Still no mowage. At this point I mentally located my test meter, unplugged the mower cable end and planned a cable / fuse test. to check what fuse access was like on the 13 amp end I pulled it from the socket, and inspected......
The toaster plug. Whereas the mower plug was still dangling by the window.
Grass is now cut.