Thirty years ago today, I was glued to the TV watching the Nine O'clock News on the Beeb reporting the attempted coup in Spain.
Later, on Newsnight, Peter Snow described the earlier events when a group of armed Guardia Civil stormed the Cortes, their leader, Antonio Tejero, waving a pistol about and telling 350 MPs to sit down.
One of three MPs to openly defy the gun-wielding goons, Santiago Carrillo (leader of the Communists) just sat in his chair smoking a cigarette.
The whole event was over by dawn the following morning when the plotters realised they had no support, after King Juan Carlos had gone on air to denounce the coup and urging the maintenance of law and the continuance of the democratically elected government.
But it showed how fragile a bloom democracy was, and how with the help of other Western European countries (later, through the European Union) it could be nurtured and strengthened.
Oh and Tejero? He got 15 years.
El pueblo unido, jamás será vencido! The people united will never be defeated!
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