The Secret of the League

'The Secret of the League' is a British dystopian novel by Ernest Bramah, which describes a successful overthrow of a democratically elected British Labour Party government by members of the upper classes, and depicts such an overthrow as being a positive and desirable outcome. In the fictional British history depicted in the book, the Labour Party wins an overwhelming majority in general elections and forms a government. They do not institute a completely socialist economy, but increase wages frequently, tax the upper classes greatly and create a large government bureaucracy. In foreign policy, the Labour Government is conciliatory towards other powers and curtails military spending. A powerful upper-class cabal (the "League" of the title), whose members feel that "the country is going to the dogs", makes careful secret preparations for overthrowing the government. Over two years, they secretly hoard large quantities of fuel oil and convert coal-burning plants to oil-burning. Then, they suddenly announce a consumer strike against the coal industry — at the time, a central part of the British economy — and cause large-scale unemployment and distress among coal miners and secondary industries dependent on coal.