George Osborne-Shadow Chancellor (UK)

[thedaffodils]

Mr Osborne usually litters speeches with wisecracks, delivered with Larry Grayson wrists. But this one was shorn of levity.

The only hand gesture was the occasional clenched right fist which, you felt, he wanted to mince into Gordon Brown's hooter.

This half-hour speech was a self-denying, skimmed-milk, monk-like affair, Mr Osborne's tweety-bow lips drawn into a lemon-suck of disapproval.

QUENTIN LETTS: His tweety-bow lips formed a lemon suck of disapproval | Mail Online


Q1: What's the connotation of "delivered with Larry Grayson wrists"?

I have got the related info about Larry Grayson from Wikipedia. He was a British comedian.

Larry Grayson - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Q2: Could you rephrase the sentence as below?

This one was shorn of levity.

Q3: What do "skimmed-milk, monk-like" mean in this context?

I know each phrase respectively. But I don't understand them here.

Q4: tweety-bow lips =?


Many thanks!

[Anglika]

QUENTIN LETTS: His tweety-bow lips formed a lemon suck of disapproval | Mail Online


Q1: What's the connotation of "delivered with Larry Grayson wrists"?

I have got the related info about Larry Grayson from Wikipedia. He was a British comedian. He was also a homosexual comedian of a particularly camp type, whose gestures tended to be "limp".

Larry Grayson - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Q2: Could you rephrase the sentence as below?

This one was shorn of levity. This speech was serious.

Q3: What do "skimmed-milk, monk-like" mean in this context? Lacking body [skimmed milk is "thin" compared to full milk] and reserved [monks are expected to behave seriously]

I know each phrase respectively. But I don't understand them here.

Q4: tweety-bow lips =? Osborne's mouth is rather small and has a very curved upper lip: http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/mpdb/img/66007.jpg


Many thanks!

..

[thedaffodils]

Thank you for your help, Anglika.