EVERY time Rip Van Gordon Brown emerges to make some new pronouncement on Brexit or Scottish independence I feel my blood pressure rise to worrying levels.

His latest shutting-the-door-after-the horse-has-bolted comments on getting Parliament to order Boris Johnson to commission an independent report into the effects of a No-Deal Brexit is much too little, three years too late.

Because, let’s face it, if the UK Government are misleading us on the date of their own Yellowhammer document, it’s unlikely they’re going to publish the full story of no deal Armageddon for the UK.

Johnson can’t even tell the truth about pies, giving just about every political cartoonist in the land an easy porkies hit.

In any case, does Brown not remember that the Scottish Government produced a full analysis back in 2016 on the effects of a No-Deal Brexit on Scotland, part of a thorough report which also examined the impact of a soft and hard Brexit on our nation?

We know already and have done for quite some time that No Deal is going to be catastrophic. Catch up, please, Gordon or get an internet connection in the cave.

Undeterred by these important gaps in his knowledge, the former Labour leader then followed this up with a spot at the Edinburgh Book Festival where he suggested that the SNP and Johnson and his hard-right Brexiteer cabinet are the same kind of extreme political beast, determined to wreak havoc upon the UK and our “precious Union” through division and conflict. Yada, yada, yada.

READ MORE: Gordon Brown accuses SNP of 'hardline separatism'

And not once in any of his epistles does Brown ever reflect on his own responsibility. As chancellor he paved the way and paid the bills for the war in Iraq, cleaving a hole in the heart of the Labour Party.

As prime minister he was ushered out of office by the privileged chums, Cameron and Clegg, making way for the disasters to come.

When he started up on federalism and more powers for Holyrood, I’m sure even his die-hard fans in the audience felt short-changed with the same old repeat. That record is not even a 45, it’s a 78!

Brown is so blinded by his allegiance to the Union that he tars everyone else with the same blinkered brush. He can’t understand the difference between civic and xenophobic nationalism or the inequality in the relationship between Scotland and Westminster.

So, imagine my surprise when I found myself agreeing with Brown on his analysis of the recent G7 summit in sunny Biarritz. For once he absolutely hit the nail on the head when he retitled it “G-Zero” and remarked that what was most worrying about this powerful get-together was that it was defined “by an absence of a collective interest”.

He went on to describe the summit as “impotent” due to division and conflict, with world leaders polarised on vital global issues which will impact almost each and every one of us.

The G7 was indeed a parade of macho posturing, with Johnson and Trump in jokey alpha love-in mode while Macron, as the best-dressed grown-up in the room, got side-tracked, exchanging barbs with that foolish mysoginist, Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro.

America’s petulant president even went awol during possibly the most vital discussion of the whole summit, the rather pressing issue of climate crisis and the raging fires of the Amazon. When it was all over, Trump praised Macron for “an extremely stylish” G7 summit. Stylish indeed – style over substance, largely thanks to himself and Johnson.

The National: Donald Trump had little to contribute at the G7 summitDonald Trump had little to contribute at the G7 summit

Unfortunately, we’ve the same problem with political impotence in the UK. Here we are on the brink of a No-Deal Brexit, or parliament possibly being closed down by Johnson, and Remain parties like the Liberal Democrats are playing at party politics with their own antipathy towards Jeremy Corbyn and his caretaker prime minister proposal to break the deadlock. What we need is consensus and compromise from all the parties in order to stop Johnson making a mockery of democracy. Now is not the time to pick hairs or take umbrage. Now is the time for bold and united action.

Of course, there is one party that’s trying to bridge this divide and is willing to do whatever it takes to stop these ardent Brexiteers, and this is, of course, where Gordon Brown and I diverge once more.

Brown likens the SNP to the current divisive UK Government, but every single action of my former colleagues has been focused on stopping a hard-right Brexit from being foisted upon not just Scotland, but the whole UK.

Right from the get-go, we’ve been the realists at the summit, ready to bury our own differences, to put our own agenda on the back burner to stop No Deal and work together across political divides.

The SNP, largely through the work of Joanna Cherry MP, were an integral part of the legal triumph to revoke Article 50 and have now gone to the Scottish Courts to stop Johnson from proroguing parliament.

We are looking at the bigger picture, we are reaching out beyond our own political aspirations. Indeed, if there were to be a legitimate criticism of the SNP it would be exactly the opposite one – perhaps we are being too reasonable. In our laudable anxiety to do what’s best for everyone, we must always remember we are not just an anti-Brexit party, but fundamentally the party of Scottish independence.

READ MORE: Busted: 'It's hard to leave the EU, never mind the Union'

So, my advice to Gordon Brown is to spend some time soul-searching on his own blind allegiance to a Union that refuses to live “side by side” in a neighbourly fashion or respect each nation as an equal partner. Perhaps he should re-examine his own party stereotypes and outdated political attitude.

Because this is how you work for the collective interest and this is how you get past stalemate to find positive solutions. It’s time for Brown to think outside the cave, so that the next time he emerges, he will have something useful to contribute to the world as it is, not as he imagines it to once have been.

In the original Washington Irvine tale, when Rip Van Winkle finally emerged from the mountains, he had slept through the American revolution. Gordon Brown is in danger of missing the Scottish one.