Dave, the problem with using non-payment as a protest is that the suppliers have you by the balls - if you don't pay, they stop your supplies. Who's the loser? It won't be the suppliers who are shivering their gonads off!

In the case of the Poll Tax, there was nothing they could cut off, they just got an AoE from the court (if you were working). It wasn't non-payment of poll-tax that brought Thatcher down, it was the fear of losing votes through its unpopularity (amongst other things).