Contempt of Conscience is a project started by Joe Jenkins before he joined the Peace Tax Seven and the ongoing campaign for a judicial review has become a major part of it.In early 2003, at a US air force base in England as B-52′s bombers prepare to bomb Iraq, a Welsh Weapons Inspector is stopped and searched under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.
In recalling the words of a Secretary of State at another massive anti war demonstration: Let them march all they want as long as they continue to pay their taxes, the Inspector hangs up his de-contamination outfit and dons a suit to take on the Inland Revenue.
He refuses to pay his income tax arguing that compelling taxpayers to pay for acts of deliberate killing they profoundly disagree with, is a violation of the law.
As a campaign grows to change the law there is vehement opposition as the State insists that a peace tax would set a dangerous precedent.
Too often war is associated with deaths and statistics and audiences miss out on some of the more subtle but complex issues associated with it. This film opens up these issues and creates new insights! – Head of Philosophy and Ethics, Sir William Perkins School.
Contempt of Conscience is a documentary about the formation, and goals of, a group of conscientious objectors called The Peace Tax Seven.