Idiom: dry as dust (used idiomatically: yes)
Here , here . Mr John Greenway . Er well Madam Deputy Speaker I think erm that the last half an hour shown that er the quality of debate in this house er remains extremely high and that even when you have an issue which on the face of it looks to be as dry as dust er that er there are some honourable members who will pick an argument er when perhaps er on the face of it there ought not to be much of an argument er I ca n't erm I ca n't say that erm I agreed with much of what erm the honourable member for Great Grimsby said er he seemed to imply er quite early on his er speech that most of the City of London er was collapsing in a sea of sleaze and er er other other goings on which are extremely er to be regretted but erm I think we ought to er remind him er that erm , you know , all all of these four orders er followed the Bingham inquiry into er what happened at B C C I which was not a British bank , was an international bank based erm overseas and I think I 'm right in saying this and I 'm sure my honourable friend the minister will confirm when he winds up er this is the first er such difficulty er that we 've experienced for a great length of time . Er , now the the point I really want to refer to is erm just what role an auditor ought to play er in the er insurance and financial service industry in looking at particular firms , erm I have several interests which the honourable member for Edinburgh central knows about , er the one that I think is relevant er to tonight is that I am an elected member of the insurance brokers registration council and the way that erm the way that we regulate insurance brokers erm is laid down by statute but it does actually demonstrate the advantage , the benefit of erm of having a statutory requirement for audit and for er a proper oversight of what then follows in terms of the way that the regulator reacts to what the auditor may say . The purpose of of these four orders , which I must say I greatly welcome , it is one of the , the most beneficial things to come out of the B C C I er disaster er and er i if I can say in in effectively in answer to to everything the honourable gentleman for Great Grimsby said and he and I have debated on many occasions , if fact usually on the television not on the floor of the house , but er an an an an because of it for not quite so long either , er but erm th the point I would make to his is that really what he was saying was th that what went wrong with B C C I is that Price Waterhouse knew there was fraud and did n't say so and that wha what Lord Justice Bingham pointed out was that there is a clear conflict of interest between the interest of the client who they work for and the public interest and that what needed , what was needed was some amendment to the banking act to clarify that and that is precisely what er this order actually does and you ca n't really er Madam Deputy Speaker , expect anyone to really seriously criticise the government when in actual fact not only have they come up with the regulation to deal with that but they 've also gone further and said we will apply this to financial services and to building societies and to insurance companies as well , just to be absolutely sure .