Thanks for the replies, it is a lot clearer to me now. MRCecil, what specifically is "wrong" with the switch I referenced? I have used one of those plastic junction boxes you see everywhere to mount the switch in so there are no exposed wires. Perhaps talking about "wiring a workbench" makes it sound more hardcore than it is - all I'm trying to do is mount some multiplugs along my bench (it's a long-ish bench, hence the need for a few multiplugs) at home for working on small hobby projects. I don't have any equipment that will be pulling anywhere in the region of 15A, it's just mainly stuff like an oscilloscope, bench power supply, scroll saw (90W), drill press (450W), soldering iron, glue gun, laptop, etc... ie. no heavy equipment really and only one or two of them would ever be running at the same time.
Since a few have mentioned fire risk etc, I was wondering whether my method of joining wires together is acceptable... all I did was bare the wires, solder them firmly together, wrap each wire tightly with insulation tape, and then wrap all three wires together with more insulation tape for strength.