Ross Lydall: Who's donating what to political parties...

A number of interesting names pop up in the latest quarterly register of donations to political parties, published today by the Electoral Commission.
There is Lord (Lewis) Moonie, the former Labour MP for Kirkcaldy, who was ordered to apologise to the House of Lords after being caught up in the "cash for amendments" scandal. He donated £4,000 to the Scottish Labour Party.
Then there is £250 donated to the Glasgow North East Constituency Labour Party by a "William Bain", who we can probably asume is the same Willie Bain mooted as the front-runner to become the Labour candidate in the forthcoming by-election in that constituency caused by the resignation of Speaker Michael Martin.
There are also donations to the Scottish Labour Party from Robert Wiseman Dairies (£2,000) - which may make a few people think twice about their choice of pinta - the Royal Mail (why on earth has it given the Labour party £3,000?) and the Daily Record, which managed to find £2,000 to donate to Labour while culling staff.
The SNP lists just four donations (three of them bequests) worth £55,900, while the Tories boast £10,000 from Dragon's Den star Theo Paphitis, more than £1 million from businessman Stanley Fink and £10,000 from uber-trendy London restaurant Hakkasan. A Scottish Tory prize draw raised £36,372.
As for the Lib-Dems, they raised more than £820,000 - including £1,252 from Argyll and Bute MP Alan Reid and £11,700 from Treasury spokesman Vince Cable, who is probably feeling flush after securing a Sunday newspaper column and having a book published on the credit crunch.