EU referendum, brexit and the aftermath

There is no evidence of lions 🦁 ever having inhabitated the British Isles. There were lions in Europe but mainly Southern Europe.

My guess is that lions were chosen for convenience, as no-one would have feared Richard the Badgerheart or the British and Irish badgers.

Back in the day, like bare years ago, kings and queens would show off their power and wealth by bringing lions to England to show what billy big bollocks they were in the royal menageries. Combine that with the fact everybody knows lions are double hard bastards, it was a potent combo.

From there, they were associated with regality, nobility and strength and I suppose at some point, a particularly weak jawed crown muppet decided to use the emblem to project strength that he or she didn't have.

I thought those 'lions' were really 'leopards'?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopard_(heraldry)