“You will not find much about what the Prime Minister does in the text-books. What he does is partly made up of convention and custom, but the nature of the office depends a great deal on the person who holds it. … Make it [the Cabinet] as small as possible. Democracy means government by discussion, but it is only effective if you can stop people talking. Some of my early Cabinets were very small, but I arrived at the conclusion that 16 is the right number.”

— Clement Attlee

Address to the Oxford University Law Society (14 June 1957), quoted in The Times (15 June 1957), p. 4.
Later life

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Clement Attlee 95

Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 1883–1967

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Clement Attlee 95

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