Light switches

Living in a different country/ place sort of means a lot of learning and culture shocks but to be honest, I have been doing rather fine in England (so far).

BUT.

ONE THING.

BIG BIG CULTURE SHOCK THIS.

Light switches.

Yes.

One day when I'm a wrinkly granny I can tell my grandchildren 'Oh when your granny was young she lived in London for a short while, and she learnt a lot about light switches!'

Now let me begin by giving you a background lesson on light switches in Hong Kong, they normally look like this when mounted on the wall :

And when they come in the form of lamps, they look like this :

So basically my point is : in HK, the light switches work by magical clickty-clicks. Nothing fancy. Easily accesible. 

Come English light switches (okay, yes I did take the above pictures just then (in England) but you know, not all lights have switches that are as evil, impersonal and unfriendly), THIS : 

Now what the actual _ _ _ _? How are you supposed to - click this crap?????? 

I remember the first time I had to confront this beast face-to-face I was staying at a friend's and was placed in a spare room. I had to run to the loo (classic me) during the night and I could only reach for the main light switch on the wall that's not even close. JUST BECAUSE I COULDN'T FIGURE THIS SHITE OUT. 

I don't really see the point of not having one of those clickty-click switches. Plus these are always found under the lampshade which makes them extra awkward to locate and of course, OPERATE. 

And now let us not forget that dangly string that seems to exist in every single English bathroom : 

(courtesy of Google)

Why? Is there an unspoken rule/ consensus amongst the English that one has to install this sort of light in their own bathroom?

Someone tell me. Please.