Nigel Farage has compared David Cameron’s pro-Union campaigning to Edward II’s ill-fated attempt at Bannockburn as he lambasted the Better Together campaign.
The Ukip leader gave a speech to around 100 party members and activists in Glasgow 16 months after he was chased out of an Edinburgh pub into a police van by pro-independence activists.
Around 50 protesters gathered outside of the west coast venue chanting loudly the likes of: “Yes or No, Ukip has got to go,” and: “U-K-I-P, we don’t want your bigotry”.
Unlike the capital, though, security was tight at the IET Teachers’ building.
The only trouble was a disturbance in St Enoch Square, outside the venue, which resulted in a man being arrested.
Police said it was not related to either the event or the accompanying protest.
Mr Farage said: “From the beginning I was astonished that the Prime Minister allowed for the separatists to be given the Yes side of the referendum question.
“Far better from his point of view, you would have thought, would have been to have asked the question “should Scotland remain part of the United Kingdom?”
“And to keep the positive on his side.
“But no, on this he blundered. But more fundamentally he blundered by not offering the Scottish people, the devo max option.
“I have absolutely no doubt that if that had been on the ballot paper it would have secured a large majority of the votes.
“However, arrogant as Edward II was at Bannockburn, Cameron has walked straight into this long planned ambush.
“Now of course, he and the others in Better Together are offering the devo max option.
“They’re not giving people directly the chance to vote for it and the Labour Party led by Ed Miliband has totally failed to connect, despite the fact that electorally they have the most to lose.”
Earlier Mr Farage risked invoking the wrath of Buckingham Palace when he called on the Queen to make a public statement in support of the Union if the campaign was still on a knife-edge by Sunday.
The palace took the unprecedented step earlier this week of warning campaigners not to politicise the monarch but the Ukip leader pointed out that the Queen backed the Union in her 1977 Silver Jubilee speech and “it might be handy if she said it again”.
Mr Farage, who once backed the abolition of the Scottish Parliament, also announced that he wanted to see a federal UK with powers devolved to the different parts of the country, and Scottish MPs should be stripped of the power to vote on English matters.
Before Mr Farage arrived his time in the venue lasted little more than his speech Scotland’s only Ukip MEP admitted he admired Vladimir Putin and that he had not held a single surgery for constituents since being elected in May.
David Coburn, who dubbed himself “The McNigel” said he blamed the EU for Russia’s advance into Ukraine, which has sparked an international crisis over the past few months.
He added: “I don’t think the European Union hould stand up for sovereign states if they don’t have an army to back it up,” he said.
“You shouldn’t go around waving a big stick at the Russians unless you have a big stick to back it up.”