Though I disagree with pacifism, I respect that is a deeply-held view for some individuals. Pacifism is principled position and past treatment of conscientious objectors during wartime has been shocking and I think it is right their experiences are now being commemorated.
Allowing taxpayers an option of not having their own tax receipts fund things to which they have a fundamental objection or ‘hypothecation’, as it is known, has never been a part of the UK tax system. There are many practical reasons for doing so:
1. It would soon lead to the Government being deluged with petitions, as taxpayers decided they might prefer not to pay for a given service in the light of a particular aspect of current Government policy. At present our elected Government is responsible for allocating resources, and has to account for its decisions to the electorate. Hypothecation could transform the job of politicians into simply lobbying voters on the future uses of tax revenues before a referendum.
2. Tying expenditure on individual services to the yields of individual taxes makes spending vulnerable to the vagaries of the business cycle, as tax yields rise and fall in line with incomes, profits and sales.
3. Government spending might well fall prey to how emotive it proves to be with the electorate. Hospitals and schools might easily argue for greater spending - less glamorous but no less necessary services might suffer in the short run such as tax collection.