Nothing happened at TMI

That’s not true. The extra cancer screening saved tens of lives and the strangling of the nuclear industry probably resulted in millions of excess deaths from pollution compared to if TMI had never happened.

History strongly shows that epidemics do change political consciousness, toward psychological conservatism. It will take two generations (as with economic depressions) before things get anything like as loose and sloppy again. We'll fail in other ways, meanwhile. Eventually, UK citizens lost their faith in the aristocratic system. But they did. I may be kidding myself but I think there will be some permanent change from this.

> Eventually, UK citizens lost their faith in the aristocratic system. But they did. I may be kidding myself

To start with, getting fed up with aristocrats would be a revolutionary and progressive thing, not conservative. But it does not seem like there is enough such sentiment in the UK to change things. They still have their royals with veto power, they still have the unelected house of lords with aristocratic, religious and appointed hereditary members and the FPTP system. The house of lords can infinitely send back any bill to the parliament, by the way - which amounts to a total veto power.

Re aristocracy, I only mean that change happens drop by drop even when the movement toward it is all but invisible, sometimes.

> To start with, getting fed up with aristocrats would be a revolutionary and progressive thing, not conservative.

I agree with you but historians tend to label Hitler as conservative/right wing as a counter example.