MOTORISTS are enjoying the falling price of petrol at the garage pumps as the cost of a litre comes tumbling down.

But while drivers are smiling at the lower cost of filling up the North Sea oil industry is facing a crisis.

Of course it is right that if the price of oil falls then it should be passed on to the customer just as the increases are quickly translated into price hikes.

The downside is it quickly manifests itself in job losses as we have seen this week from oil companies.

And of course it means less cash for the public finances in tax on the value of oil brought out of the sea.

Oil obviously played a key role in the independence debate and the divisions run as deep as the source of the black stuff itself.

The reasons for the falling oil price are not within the control of the Scottish Government or the UK government and dependent on global market forces and the supply of oil for other far bigger oil producing countries.

So for Scotland's two main parties to be at each other's throats during this crisis is unseemly to be polite and disgracefully self serving to be blunt.

Yes the SNP projections of the price of oil were wildly inaccurate and the prospect of a second oil boom at present seems more than wishful thinking.

But to gloat that they were wrong and berate then that Scotland's future financial prospects would be less than rosy if we were now preparing for independence is not helpful.

It is expected in an election year to highlight the shortcomings in economic management of your opponent but when hundreds of people are losing their jobs there is a more urgent task in hand.

Equally for the SNP to hit back with how successive UK governments, Labour and Tory over the decades have spent the oil cash while other countries have saved for a rainy day is electioneering.

Both SNP and Labour are indulging in told- you-so politics, which will not help a single oil worker or contractor through this crisis.

The leadership of both parties have been making sure they are visibly talking to the oil industry and the Chancellor has also taken a trip offshore, combined with a photo- opportunity.

If the solution is for the UK Chancellor to ease the burden on the industry by adjusting the tax burden temporarily, then the Scottish politicians should be urging him to do so.

Rather than berating each other with an eye on their prospects at the General Election they should be walking up Downing Street together demanding action to help an essential Scottish industry through a troubled time.