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The lack of identification of the live and neutral suggests I can wire this up anyway but that can't be right can it?

Why not? Don't forget you can take the lamp out, turn it 180 degrees and put it back, in effect swapping the wires round.

Don't forget you can take the lamp out, turn it 180 degrees and put it back

What?

Screw in bulb.

Argyll wrote: ↑Tue Sep 28, 2021 2:45 pmScrew in bulb.

You never said it was screw in. (I am no good at mind reading )

Yes the centre terminal should be live. Which means you need to get your multi meter out and find out which is which, or do as most people do, connect it anyway.
The reason the centre pin is supposed to be live and not the outer is so that when the lamp is screwed in if you touch the threaded part of the lamp and you are earthed you will not get a shock. It used to be common with par 38 lamp fittings and shop "track" lights

Are you 100% sure there isn't any colour identification on those cores? There often is and yes ES (screw) bulbs should be wired with the correct polarity

Cheers, I checked with a multimeter. Yes, there are no colours. It's possible there may have been identification tabs when it was new but it's second hand so there's nothing. All connected now.

I changed to a low energy 15w bulb but it buzzes like hell now so I changed back to the original bulb. Is this due to the quality of the bulb?

No.
Try the lamp in another fitting see what happens.
I would guess it is a poor connection to the centre pin
what "low energy lamp" did you use?

These ones here. They were given to me by someone I did a job for but wouldn't accept payment so they gave me these. Could it possibly be too high wattage? Or just crap bulbs?

It is most unlikely to be too high wattage since that lamp is only 15W and I would guess the first lamp you tried in the fitting was 60+w?
What happens if you try the low energy lamp in a different fitting? (I suspect it will not buzz)
Often, particularly with cheaper ES lamp holders, when you screw in the lamp you compress the centre contact too much, and it is usually just a bent bit of thin metal that will not spring back enough, so all you need to do, with the mains off, get a piece of wire or string, make it into a loop lower it into the fitting, over the centre "pin" and pull it up slightly, so it will make a better connection with the centre pin of the lamp.

I have both ES27 and BC bayonet electronic lamps like these, but Philip's brand, the ES ones do not buz even when screwed out to almost no contact however they are 11 watt and as they generate some heat in comparison with LED I replaced them; me thinks that if you are getting full voltage at the fitting yours are cr*p.

Just buy an LED bulb

LED bulb coming this morning. Thanks, guys.

LED one works fine. Sh1te bulb right enough.