You fight them and keep fighting them
An interview with the late John Mortimer in Five Dials:
JM: … When I think of a Conservative government I think that is a bit worrying. Except the Labour Party has become so conservative. You must be vigilant. You’ve got something very precious here, precious freedoms. Don’t let them get thrown away in little bits. …
5D: What issues are you interested in now?
JM: The issues I think of these days are the Labour Party’s assault on the law. The fact you can be imprisoned for however many days without being put on trial. Witnesses can be stood behind screens so no one knows who they are. All these little things that make the English law so unique are being dropped by the Labour Party. That’s obscene.
5D: Why do you think today’s writers aren’t writing about those issues?
JM: I am writing about them. I don’t think other writers are quite conscious of what’s going on.
5D: How are you tackling these issues?
JM: I’m writing a Rumpole book, naturally. You have to set out on the assumption that there’s nothing you can’t write about. If anyone tells you anything different, you fight them. You fight them and keep fighting them.
Although it was published before the interview was conducted, I think the book that best fits this bill is Rumpole and the Reign of Terror.
Australian readers will find the plot eerily familiar: a mild-mannered doctor from the subcontinent battles to prove his innocence against over-enthusiastic authorities, biased laws, and tabloid-driven public opinion. The book was published in November 2006; Mohamed Haneef was arrested in July 2007.