COMMENT | Records held by the Corporation of the City of London dating back to the 15th century reveal the existence of pardoners who were usually friars or priests whom they said gave them the power to grant absolution - for a fee, naturally.

Not surprisingly, the profession attracted many fraudsters armed with fake papal pardons and bogus relics. The records also revealed several cases of “lying pardoners” being publicly shamed and named.

The same book lists the collective noun for birds as a “Parliament of owls” - which has its origins in the children’s classic, “The Chronicles of Narnia” by CS Lewis and is a reference to Chaucer’s allegorical poem “The Parliament of Fowls”.

Although owls are solitary and nocturnal birds who only pair up to mate, “Parliament of owls” is a poetic description, perhaps because owls are also symbols of wisdom.

A shrewdness of apes originated in the late 1400s, referring to the mischievous nature of apes, though knowing now how intelligent they are, the term still works.

In 2009, secretive British street artist Banksy, painted “Devolved Parliament” in which chimpanzees replace politicians, reflecting the brutish exchanges over Brexit.

Last year, Selangor ruler Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah purchased...