Alistair Darling launches coalition against Scottish independence Alistair Darling has warned that Scotland faces an "irrevocable" and historic decision on independence as he launched a new cross-party coalition to campaign in favour of remaining within the United Kingdom. The former chancellor said the coalition group Better Together, an anti-independence alliance between Labour, the Tories and Liberal Democrats in Scotland, would "make sure that the patriotism of the quiet majority" of Scots who supported the UK would be heard over the minority who backed independence. Senior sources within the pro-UK campaign told the Guardian they believe Alex Salmond, the Scottish first minister, is preparing significant retreats on his plans for independence, fearing a heavy defeat in the referendum planned for autumn 2014. Recent unpublished polling of more than 2,000 Scottish voters found deep levels of resistance to Salmond's proposals for full independence, leaving him far short of the majority he would need to win the referendum, according to well-placed figures in the Labour party and the coalition government in Whitehall. If Salmond loses the referendum, they expect to use that defeat to force his resignation as leader of the Scottish National Party and then oust the SNP from power at the next Holyrood elections in 2016. It's all about beating Salmond. He can't have any gain from this," said one Whitehall source. The referendum "must be an end to independence; knock it on the head once and for all." Several sources said the confidential polling, carried out to help design the Better Together campaign, had found that support for independence was now bottoming out at about a third of voters, and was very vulnerable to anxieties about the economy and employment. Darling told the launch rally in Edinburgh on Monday that Scotland and the rest of the UK were founded on common values, interdependence and a shared history. He said Scotland faced a "historic choice." He insisted he was a patriot and a Scot, but pushing for independence during a economic crisis was unjustified, risky and ill-thought through. The last things we need are the new areas of uncertainty, instability and division that separation will involve. The choice we make will be irrevocable. If we decide to leave the United Kingdom there is no way back. We can't give our children a one-way ticket to a deeply uncertain destination," he said. Darling confirmed he will lead the Better Together coalition as an independent body officially supported by all three main pro-UK parties, Labour, the Tories and the Liberal Democrats, which has hired the same digital campaigning agency which helped Barack Obama win the US presidential race in 2008, Blue Square digital. With about 28 months still to go before the anticipated referendum in autumn 2014, the campaign will distribute half a million leaflets to households describing the UK's interlocked and historic economic and social links. Charles Kennedy, the former Lib Dem leader and Scottish Lib Dem MP, was due to take the floor with Darling and Annabel Goldie, the former Scottish Tory leader, but pulled out at the last moment. A co-leader of Better Together, the Lib Dems said one of his parents had taken ill, forcing him to stay at home in the Highlands. Whitehall and Labour sources believe Salmond's own internal polling has confirmed that support for independence has bottomed out at about 33% of voters, and he is now planning two different strategies to secure a victory. They believe Salmond is devising a weaker version of independence known as "devolution max" or "secure autonomy" where Scotland would raise all its taxes, but remain in the UK by sharing services such as defence and security, European policy, sterling and banking, and foreign affairs. After already arguing in favour of retaining sterling, the Bank of England, the monarchy and now close to advocating membership of Nato, he hopes that a softer version of independence would prove more popular amongst swing and centre-ground voters. His alternative strategy is to again push for a second question to be put on the referendum ballot paper, which would offer voters the chance to choose a middle option of "devolution plus," where Scotland would control about two thirds of its taxation, welfare and domestic affairs, but share pensions, national insurance, defence, Europe, banking, foreign affairs and security. A report in the Times on Monday also suggested Salmond was considering a delay for the referendum, until the UK election in May 2015, in a bid to capitalise on voter discontent with the UK coalition government and the economy. Pressure for a "second question" and for far greater political power for the Scottish parliament increased yesterday after the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations, an influential umbrella body which is campaigning for greater devolution, said its polling had found 56% of voters wanted a second question on more powers at the referendum. The SCVO poll said 59% of Labour and SNP voters,and 62% of women voters, supported a multi-option or two question referendum. SCVO is playing a leading role in an unaligned campaign to investigate further powers known as Forward Scotland, which has so far not supported a second question option. Martin Sime, SCVO's chief executive, said: "People in Scotland want to have a meaningful debate about all the options for the future. This won't come about through political point scoring and simplistic yes or no to independence campaigns. Politicians must stop ignoring what their supporters want. Darling said Salmond was very keen to get a second question to bolster his chances of securing extra powers at the referendum - a strategy which Darling, the coalition government in London and Labour's leadership are opposing. He wants a second question. It's increasingly obvious he's afraid of the first. He threw down the gauntlet last year after the SNP won the Scottish parliamentary election and he asked the question, but it looks like he doesn't want to hear the answer," Darling said. I have this growing feeling he's looking at the polling evidence and coming to the view that anything which might muddy the waters might help his cause. I think we've come so far in the six months of this year, expectations have now been raised in Scotland that we're actually going to get to vote in a referendum; I would be very hesitant to suggest to any politician that they should stand in the way of that. Scottish Labour and the Lib Dems are separately working on their own proposals for greater powers for Holyrood, but insist they will only put those plans to voters at the 2015 UK general election and then 2016 Scottish election, not at a referendum. Darling said voters wanted a clear, unambiguous choice: "I'm certainly pretty clear that most people in Scotland actually know what the choice is; we're all grown ups, we all know what's going on here. Which is why I think it's far better that people are given the choice on this issue. For goodness sake, let's get on with it and move on from here. Let's not do this for another 30 or 40 years.