IF Benjamin Franklin was correct and guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days, then what sort of whiff does a three-week-old referendum result carry?

A pretty heady one, if Alistair Carmichael, the Scottish Secretary, is any guide. Addressing his party's conference in Glasgow this week, the LibDem minister was looking for what armchair analysts everywhere like to call "closure". We are all jargon spouting therapists now.

His plea was the age old one of the victors to the vanquished, or in this case those they believe to be the vanquished. In short, why can't we be friends? The people of Scotland, he pronounced, had voted to remain in the UK and that democratic decision had to be respected.

"We settled the independence question in a way that was legal, fair and decisive. And we won. But now the campaign is over and now we need to move on - the 45 per cent who voted Yes and the 55 per cent who voted No. We can all wave flags, join protests and march if we want to. But wouldn't it be better to set those things aside, to accept the will of the Scottish people, and to put your shoulder to the wheel in our common endeavour?"

There is no-one like a LibDem for mugging a victim then helping him to his feet.

What Nicola Sturgeon had to do now, he advised the First Minister-in-waiting, was to rule out another referendum within three years for the sake of economic stability, the children, the planet, and so on.

His leader took a similar track. Nick Clegg warned against the seductive charms of the "politics of fear", as practised, in his view, by the SNP and Ukip. Such "pick-a-side" politics provided nothing but the false comfort of grievance, he said. That box ticked, he then savaged the Tory party he had been in coalition with for four years. Got to pick a side, after all.

David Cameron, now he has tired of the politics of fear, at least until the General Election anyway, has also been keen to hug and make up. With "a very clear result" in the bag, said the Prime Minister, the right thing to do was to move on and deliver the extra powers that had been promised.

All of which was much to be expected. Ms Sturgeon, alas, had clearly not received the memo, or if she had it had gone straight into the trash. The SNP deputy leader, who, barring a meteor strike, will be leader in five weeks' time, announced her intention to carry on the fight. Independence was now a when, and no longer an if, she said.

Just as the referendum campaign often appeared to rewrite the rules on modern electioneering - especially the edict about people no longer being interested in politics - so the result is challenging accepted norms.

In the past, it was the done thing for a party on the losing side to drop the pilot, indulge in a furious and prolonged bout of navel gazing, and slog its way back to fighting form.

The SNP have done things differently. Their pilot ejected himself and, after a good night's sleep, the party seems to be trying to carry on as though nothing much occurred that September day. Referendum, what referendum? No result, what No result?

It is not just SNP ministers who have pressed the reset button. Over the course of its existence, the Yes campaign grew from a relative handful of supporters to a mass movement. The day after referendum day - sounds like the title of a disaster movie for Yes supporters - it was striking how many Yes folk took to social media and the mainstream press to say what a life-altering experience taking part in the campaign had been.

Lives were changed, friendships made. It would not surprise me if in nine months' time there were a few referendum babies born. For many, the Yes campaign was like a book group without the faff of reading awful modern novels, a slimmers' society sans the boredom of dieting, a running club with coffee and cakes before and after. It was an organisation with a purpose, however, and while its goal was denied, the rank and file see that as no reason not to carry on.

Still wearing our armchair analyst's hat, we might see this as gratification deferred, or living in denial. Whatever, there is life in the Yes campaign yet. The party might be over, the lights may be on, but the jukebox will whirr into life again before long.

All of which horrifies those who thought voting on September 18 would be the end of it. For every Scot who was electrified by the referendum campaign, there was one enervated by it, who could not wait till it was all over and normal, largely non-political business could be resumed.

Come the weekend after the result, the plea from this camp was a collective "gie's peace" about another referendum. They were tired, they were bored, they were sick of spending money and energy on settling the matter. Now it had been resolved, they wanted to hear no more. What comfort can be offered to such folk?

Given the personalities, timeframes and nature of politics, not a lot I am afraid. Come the General Election, Scotland will be all but forgotten save for being used by the Tories and Ukip as a stick with which to beat Labour over so-called English votes for English laws.

All of which leaves Scotland looking inwards again, asking, Monty Python-style, what the Romans and Westminster ever do for us. The outcome of that election, which if current polls are a guide could leave the Tories being propped up by the loathed LibDems again, will allow the SNP to say once more that Scots have been left with a Westminster government for which they did not vote. The same auld songs will be sung.

It is wishful thinking in the extreme for Messrs Carmichael, Clegg and Cameron to believe the SNP could or should turn away from any of this. Asking a party founded on the aim of achieving independence not to fight for it is akin to asking the sun not to rise, a dog not to bark, or a LibDem not to U-turn.

This is particularly so given the woman waiting to take them on, mano-a-mano. Far from her appetite and ambition being dimmed by being a deputy for so long, Ms Sturgeon looks ravenous for the fight. That it is the same scrap does not bother her in the least.

The wearied No voter should not feel entirely devoid of hope. They still have their votes, their say, in the next General Election.

But even those who long to see the back of this neverendum referendum of ours have a personal stake in seeing the powers promised being delivered. If there is one matter that could bring them back to the fray, it is that.

Mr Cameron and company may wish and hope that they are done with Scotland, but Scotland is not yet done with them.