Barnhill By Election Candidates

The list of candidates in the Barnhill by election has been published, without a Liberal Democrat.  I have already heard suggestions that this is a deliberate tactic to try to help the Tories win.  Personally, I don't think one should underestimate the Liberal Democrats' sheer ineptitude.  However, if it is all a cunning plot, it further emphasises the hollowness of the Liberal Democrats' supposed distancing from the Tory government, and the extent to which Sarah Teather is simply a Tory government minister.