Dan delaMare-Lyon wrote:

.................................................. . Why do these
fancy lights make no provision for the fact they might be in the
"middle" of a lighting cct?

'Cos over on the Continent, the convention seems to be to wire radially
to each lighting point, with a little round box (if you're lucky) for
the cable to poke out of. Loop-in wiring is a Britisher foible, and the
world of global mass manufacturing (on which IKEA and their ilk rely)
means a few pennies saved in material costs, and most of all reducing
the number of variants of a product down to 1 if poss, and if not to 1
core unit and "outboard" country/region-specific fitments, is The Way To Go.

In some cases - not for a fancy-pants living-room-showpiece, mind - it
can look reasonable (and is safe and Regs-compliant, xpt in a bathroom
within ?Zone 1&2? where access-to-terminals-without-a-tool arguments may
apply) - to leave the existing ceiling rose in place, fit the fancy
Euro-fitting to the ceiling close by (watch those mounting screws in
relation to the likely cable run ;-) and run a short length of flex out
of the rose and into the fitting; when I've done this I've preferred
heat-resistant flex to standard PVC. Like I say, not wildly pretty, but
quite reasonable in some situations. You can always tell yourself it's
"for now", while you "test" whether the light cast is really suitable,
and that you'll tart it up with the
junction-box-in-more-or-less-accessable-place when you next redecorate
or otherwise make use of one of those rare circular tuits...