Until someone pointed it out to me recently I had not noticed that the lion sprawling on the tin of Lyle’s Golden Syrup was dead. I have been levering open the lids on those cans since I was first shown how to make drop scones. So determined was I to push a teaspoon under the lip of the lid, I never considered the strange image of a lion surrounded by a swarm of bees, with below it the words, “Out of the strong came forth sweetness”.