The Duck House The Duck House The Duck House is a 2013 comedy farce play written by Dan Patterson and Colin Swash. It is based around the events of the 2009 UK parliamentary expenses scandal, and made its world premiere at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in October 2013, at the start of a five-week UK tour. The production then transferred to the West End's Vaudeville Theatre, where it ran until 29 March 2014. The play is set in May 2009, one year before the General Election, Gordon Brown's Labour government is unpopular. Robert Houston is a Labour backbencher seeking to defect to the
Parliamentary secretary files by ministers. This replaced the positions of Secretaries of State which had been employed under Chrétien. In Australia, parliamentary secretaries are appointed in the federal government and most state governments. At the federal level, the "Ministers of State Act 1952" provides for the Prime Minister to appoint a member from either house of Parliament to be a parliamentary secretary to a minister. The Act also provides that, for constitutional purposes, parliamentary secretaries are to be appointed as ministers of state, which enables them to be paid a salary. In practice, parliamentary secretaries are the third level of ministerial positions,