The Todd Barclay saga has calmed down for now - the MP won't seek re-election in Clutha-Southland and that's in the best interests of the National government and Bill English.

And that's a put a bit of a band-aid on an open wound, but National isn't out of the woods yet - far from it.

Bill English's political career has always been cleaner than clean. That's how he likes it.

Remember the Dirty Politics saga? He kept right out of that, but from time to time he would make diplomatic comments about the goings on within the party and you could tell he was always very uncomfortable about the revelations in that book, and particularly the conversations that Judith Collins and John Key were documented to have had with various bloggers.

In that sense, English is a simple man. He doesn't play the game. He's always been a straight up and down politician who enjoys his job, is committed to his family and likes the quiet life. You get the feeling that he's a lamb-roast-on-a-Sunday-evening, kind of guy.

But the goings on in Clutha-Southland, his home electorate, threw him into a environment that he's neither use to, nor comfortable in.

In the early stages of the scandal, he rolled out the line that every politician uses when they need time to think through a response. He said "I can't recall". And he said that several times.

It bought him time, but it dented his credibility. That's not a line we're use to hearing Bill English use. John Key? Yes. But not Bill English.

The police investigation into Barclay's alleged recordings has bought him some time. While that's going on, English can use the line that he's not prepared to comment while that investigation's taking place.

But at some stage there will be some very uncomfortable questions.

Todd Barclay told Bill English - the then deputy prime minister - what he had done. He told English he had made those recordings.

And that is illegal.

English should have put pressure on Barclay to speak with police. Quite why he didn't, is baffling.

He should have stepped in when very senior, loyal members of the national party were resigning from the electorate he'd held for 18 years. He should have realised something had gone very wrong with Barclay's leadership.

He should have done more, and he didn't. And that takes the gloss off his whiter than whiter reputation.

The speed with which this scandal quickly engulfed National will have alarmed him, not least because we're 90-odd days out from an election.

And there will be more questions - why didn't he step in? Why was Barclay protected in the wake of such damning allegations? And why didn't Bill English do more when he knew that Barclay's alleged actions amounted to a crime?

Bill English's squeaky clean image has taken a hit. He can't afford for that to happen again.