The comedian Eddie Izzard travelled to Edinburgh to crack jokes and campaign on Friday, and he came flying the British flag. His fingernails were painted and polished to a high shine: with a union jack on one middle finger nail and a European flag on the other.

The first in a string of English, Welsh and Northern Irish cultural figures being lined up to campaign against a yes vote in September's independence referendum, Izzard said he had one message: to share the beauty of Britain and appeal to Scotland to say no.

"As a member of the United Kingdom family, I felt that I should say a simple message which is 'Scotland please don't go'. There are millions of people in the United Kingdom who feel this, who probably haven't been heard, but the polls show this," he said.

"I think we do better things, we do amazing things when we are together. The Olympic games will never happen again if Scotland does separate off; it was a beautiful time."

Izzard is staging his main one man touring show in Edinburgh on Friday evening as a fundraiser for the pro-UK Better Together campaign: "Scotland please don't go" is the show's slogan.

He had spent several hours on Friday morning helping on a Better Together phone bank, calling up undecided voters to make the case of the union.

Izzard is the vanguard of a pro-UK charm offensive, with the Better Together campaign keen to fend off repeated attacks over being overwhelmingly negative. "You have to be positive if you're me, you can't wear all this makeup and not be positive," Izzard said. "I'm here saying a positive message: don't go."

Even the referendum, Izzard said, was beautiful: "That's what democracy is; that is the beautiful thing. It's great. Have it. Do it."

Already closely-associated with Labour - Izzard has campaigned for Scottish Labour in byelections and is preparing to stand as London mayor in 2020, the comedian is braced for abuse from hardline Scottish nationalists and independence campaigners both online and in Friday night's audience.

Referring to the two English kings against whom Scotland's greatest leaders, William Wallace and Robert the Bruce, once fought, Izzard said he may be a ready target: "I'm an Englishman called Edward and there are a few Edwards that have had a history I think [in Scotland], there was the second one and the one in the Braveheart film."He said he has suffered far worse abuse than his pro-independence critics would dish out from routine gigs, he said. "I have had people pushing props into my head before when I was a street performer; quite a bathfull of rough gigs".