Who's donating to your local political party?
In a rare idle moment I've been having a look at the latest list of donors to our political parties.
They have to register donors who've given over £1000 in a calendar year with the Electoral Commission and the list is published every quarter.
I was initially drawn to the list by a local newspaper article.
They reported the donations by former Newcastle United Chairman Sir John Hall (£25,000 to Tory Central Office and £2285 to the Conservative campaign in marginal Stockton South), and the Duke of Northumberland (£1250 to the party in Berwick).
But there are other interesting gifts in there, though I stress none of them are scandalous.
They're not huge either, but whereas most local Labour parties have only received money from the trades unions, the South Shields party seems to have done a little better.
Amongst the donations listed are £400 from Asda, £1500 by Universal Systems Solutions of Boldon, £750 by Thompsons Solicitors, £3000 by Impetus Waste Management of Teesside and £1500 by Sony.
Perhaps the South Shields party has a very good fundraising network, or perhaps it may have benefited from having a high profile MP in David Miliband? There's no way of knowing of course.
Other Conservative donations included two of £3000 by North Tyneside mayor Linda Arkley to her local party, and the Lib Dem group on Newcastle council managed to stump up £8000 between them for the city's party.
Apart from Sir John Hall, the biggest individual donation was made to Hexham Lib Dems though - local businessman Ismail Kurdi handing over £4900.
Interesting rather than eye-catching stuff, but a sign at least that transparency over donations does give you a chance to get some insight into the funding of our political parties.
I'm Richard Moss, the BBC's Political Editor for the North East and Cumbria. Welcome to my irreverent - but hopefully insightful - northern take on reporting politics for Look North and the Politics Show.
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