Judith Collins is now campaigning to be allowed back into Cabinet.

Part of her argument is that she was cleared of the claim last year that she helped in a smear campaign against former Serious Fraud Office chief executive Adam Feeley.

But her record of unwise and unpleasant actions is far larger than the Feeley matter. And that record suggests strongly she should not be returned to Cabinet.

Collins leaked details about public servant Simon Pleasants to her friend, blogger Cameron Slater. It was claimed Pleasants leaked embarrassing details about Finance Minister Bill English's "double dipping" for ministerial allowances.

Slater then named Pleasants and launched a diatribe against him. Prime Minister John Key said Collins was "unwise" to have passed on such details and repeated she was on her "last chance."

The "last chance" had been issued five months previously, following the scandal over her dinner in China with Oravida, a company which had given money to National and one of whose directors was Collins' husband.

The more the world learned about that dinner, the stranger it looked. Whatever really happened at that meeting, there was no doubt that Collins had shown an inadequate grasp of the rules governing conflicts of interest for Cabinet ministers.

Then there is the question not just of judgment, but of temperament. Dirty Politics revealed some highly unpleasant emails between her and Slater in which she spoke about "total destruction" of her enemies, rewarding them "with double", and that "if you can't be loved, then best to be feared".

Finally, amid all the backwash over these allegations, Collins made an ugly allegation against press gallery journalist Katie Bradford – a remark she was forced to apologise for.

So the Feeley affair was, in a sense, just the straw that broke the camel's back. She duly resigned.

But the fact that this allegation turned out to be unfounded does not change the nasty back-story. And this whole saga suggests an unwise and unpleasant politician who would be better left on the back benches than promoted.

Whether she will be promoted or not, of course, won't depend on any of this. It will be decided on the grounds of brutal political pragmatism: the prime minister will have to decide whether she is more trouble outside the tent than in.

The signs are that she will be allowed back in the tent. Collins belongs to the militant Right wing of the party, and she has shown that she won't keep quiet.

Key knows from his party's history that outspoken backbenchers can cause havoc.

Maurice Williamson infuriated his leader Bill English; further back, Derek Quigley caused great trouble for leader Robert Muldoon. Best to put the rebel in Cabinet and bury them with work. The rules of Cabinet collective responsibility will then enforce their public silence.

So Judith Collins will be reinstated, even though she doesn't deserve to be.