WILLIE RENNIE is known among Holyrood’s press pack as one of the most approachable kids on the block — but it’s not often he makes the news in his own right.

This week, however, the Star reported that the Scottish Lib Dem leader had flippantly yearned for the glory days of the Con-Dem coalition.

“Remember that period during British politics, oh I wish we could return to that calm period with Nick Clegg,” he told MSPs on Wednesday.

True, his party managed to achieve a lot during these years, such as… er… voting for the bedroom tax, cutting tax for millionaires, supporting NHS privatisation and rowing back on a promise to protect Sure Start.

There’s a growing trend for centrist politicians to describe the 2010-15 years as a period of sanity and rational thought compared with the Brexit chaos that defines today’s politics.

But not only is this ahistorical, it’s an insult to the practice of history.

It’s not just that Cameron and Clegg’s government inflicted misery on the nation. As even Sir Vince Cable has admitted, the roll-out of austerity left voters more likely to support leaving the EU.

We shouldn’t forget either, regardless of where we stand on Brexit, that the Lib Dems were the first party with parliamentary representation to back a referendum on EU membership — back in 2008 when Labour was under fire for not offering a public vote on the Lisbon Treaty.

“It’s been over 30 years since the British people last had a vote on Britain’s membership of the European Union,” a leaflet adorned with Clegg’s face declared back then.

“That’s why the Liberal Democrats want a real referendum on Europe. Only a real referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU will let the people decide our country’s future.”

It would be tempting to ask for a little honesty and humility from the boys in yellow — who won’t be donning gilets jaunes any time soon.

But their track record in these fields is the reason why the British public is unlikely to take this bunch of charlatans seriously ever again.