Am utterly hopeless at DIY and need to replace two light fittings, took the old ones off without paying much attention and expected to see a brown, blue and earth. Was confronted with this,could anyone advise on how to proceed?

Light no 1

Light no 2

The light fitting which will be going on both

Thanks in advance 🙂

I know nowt bout electrics BUT proceed to the fuse box and ensure that the supply to it is off.

Looks like a loop in system, first fitting straightforward browns together in the red terminal and blues together in the other. Second fitting bit more complicated but the blue with the brown sleeving goes into the red terminal and the 2 blues go in the other terminal, green yellows go onto the earth terminal/screw. Pretty sure that will work, I am an electrician BTW, good luck.

Am utterly hopeless at DIY

Get an electrician or a competent person in before you do yourself a mischief, it ain’t worth the risk.

Err, no, do not do what is posted above – browns and blues do not always go together in lights.

More info needed.
Pic one could be a number of things. It needs testing before joining anything. There could be 3 lives and one neutral there.
Pic 2 is easier.Blue with the sleeving on goes to brown on the light fitting. The 2 blues are joined together to go to blue on the light fitting.

Dont use those crap connectors please, get a better junction box, and fit it into the ceiling, either by getting a floorboard up above, or making the hole bigger to get it through.

Also, where are you, maybe someone who knows is nearby?

Stock up on SES candle lamps as well.

The trades phasing old halogens out, yet the shops are still pushing imported lighting.

First as already mentioned make sure the supply is off to the lighting circuit at east, you can co this by switching off the 5 amp circuit breakers, usually they have a white switch on them.

picture 2 is easier a the cable cores are clearly marked.

1. the cores with green/yellow sleeving is the earth, these should be clampede under the lage screw and washer towards the bottom of the picture. the 3 brown cores arejust left in the connector block joined together. the two blue cores and the blue core from the flex go into one side of the double connector block in the base of the light,N the blue core sleeved brown and the brown core in the flex go to the other, SWL,

the 1st picture is more difficult as the two cables are not marked.

the earth as before, the two blue cores one goes to one side of the double connector block inthe light fitting and the other one to the other side. the two brown cores need to be fixed together into a connector block as in picture 2.
hope you can do that.