THE Scottish political classes need to be saved from themselves. Some of them are behaving with all the imagination, maturity and wisdom of rival football fans after an inconclusive match.

Under our system of coalition politics, the political parties are supposed to find ways to achieve consensus, and work together towards common goals. Well, they have common goals - heaps of them - but right now, they are doing everything in their power to avoid working together.

The Scottish Liberal Democrats and the Scottish National Party are united on virtually every conceivable policy from local income tax to the National Gaelic Plan; from renewable energy to smaller class sizes. Their only disagreement is about a referendum on independence - a referendum that everyone knows is never going to happen. Why? Because if the SNP tried to pass a bill in the Scottish Parliament to stage a referendum, it would be voted down. End of story.

So, why on earth can the Libdems and the SNP not set this metaphysical issue aside, and get together in a sensible coalition with the Greens to pass the very comprehensive legislative programme that they agree upon and which Scotland voted for? It's a question I have been putting to politicians in Holyrood all week, as they return from the election fray, and I have yet to have any satisfactory answer.

The Liberal Democrats are refusing to negotiate, or even sit down, unless the SNP formally gives up its referendum policy first. Yet, they know from their own experience of the last two coalitions, that this is not the way we do things in Holyrood. You cannot conduct coalition by phone call. The established procedure is for parties with broadly similar policy agendas to sit down in the offices of the Scottish executive, with the civil servants, to see if they can find a common programme.

Bums need to be on seats, and there is a distinct lack of either at the moment. So, what does the rest of the country do while the politicians sit in their backsides sulking? Are we supposed to go on paying their salaries just so that they can pursue their petty grievances; just so they can spend their time finding spurious reasons for avoiding consensus?

It's time for the people of Scotland to enter into this equation, and make the political parties behave. Get the politicians into some kind of dialogue before respect for democracy is lost. If the politicians have forgotten their covenant with the people, it is time to remind them of it.

Now, both the SNP and the Liberal Democrats have talked favourably of the need for a new cross-party Constitutional Convention, based on the one that secured devolution. This seems to be the only way forward, and if the politicians can't get their act together then it's up to civic Scotland to get the party started.

The Liberal Democrats manifesto says this body should seek to: "build consensus on new legislative and fiscal powers for the Scottish parliament". Right - let's do it.