Britain is in peril; but fear not, Gordon Brown will save the day. The chancellor set out yesterday to rescue the Union that binds England and Scotland — and, as some Scots critics pointed out, to ensure he has a country to govern if and when he becomes prime minister.

Faced with opinion polls indicating that the Scottish Nationalists are likely to be elected to power in Edinburgh in four months’ time, Brown warned that the world’s most enduring partnership of nations was under threat from this “dangerous drift” towards separatism.

“It is time to speak up for supporters of the Union,” he wrote in a newspaper article. “It is time to acknowledge Great Britain for the success it has been and is: a model for the world of how nations can not only live side by side but are stronger together and weaker apart.

“Perhaps in the past we could get by with a Britishness that was assumed without being explicitly stated. But when our country is being challenged in Scotland, Wales and now England by secessionists, it is right to be explicit about what we, the British people, share in common and the patriotic vision for our country’s future.”

His remarks raised the tone of a debate that has for the past two weeks been diverted by the rakish figure of Archie Stirling — a Perthshire laird, nephew of the founder of the SAS and former husband of Diana Rigg, the actress.

A former Scots Guards officer, Stirling will next month launch his own political party, the Scottish Democrats. An early draft of its mission statement contains a rallying cry to prevent the break-up of Britain: “The history of the Union is one of advantage to Scotland. Scottish culture is distinct from English culture, not hostile to it.”

Since his plans leaked out at the start of the year, he has been lampooned as the man least likely to rescue the United Kingdom. His real purpose is to raise the calibre of Scottish politicians by getting his talented pals elected to the Edinburgh parliament. But he has had the role of saviour thrust upon him — both by Union supporters desperate to find a figurehead for their cause, and by the gleeful Scottish media and toff-baiting political class.

Brown’s intervention is a reminder that there is more at stake than a bout of Scottish class warfare. Exactly 300 years ago this Tuesday, the old Scottish parliament voted to ratify the Treaty of Union to join Scotland to England. Three centuries of shared history later, Britain is waking up to the realisation that the UK could soon be no more.

On May 3, Scotland will elect a new Scottish parliament. Polls suggest the Scottish National party (SNP) is poised to seize power.

A YouGov poll for today’s Sunday Times shows the SNP set to win 44 seats at Holyrood, ahead of Labour with 43, the Lib Dems with 18, the Scottish Tories with 18 and smaller parties and independents sharing the remaining six seats in the 129-seat legislature. Increasingly, an SNP-led coalition looks the likeliest outcome, and Alex Salmond, the party’s leader, has pledged to hold a referendum on independence.

Recent polls suggest that in such a referendum Scots would back independence, leading to the start of negotiations between London and Edinburgh on full separation. Scotland would demand its share of the value of Britain’s myriad assets, from embassies abroad to the Parachute Regiment. Naturally these assets would include the North Sea oilfields, which, in the next five years alone, are expected to produce £75 billion in tax revenues.

Negotiations would begin on the removal of Britain’s nuclear missile submarine base from Faslane on the River Clyde. And the MP for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath — a certain Gordon Brown — would have to decide whether he should resign himself to a political future in an independent Scotland or try to switch to a safe seat in England.

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