I am a PhD candidate at the Department of Politics, Lancaster University, England. My thesis is to do with the involvement of the Scottish diaspora in the politics of Scotland, particularly with regard to devolution and the question of more self government.

Not actually living in a country makes involvement in even major political issues difficult. However, the story of Scotland’s progression to devolution provides many historical examples of help being sought, and offered, from Scots many thousands of miles away as well as those closer to hand.

One of the most powerful distinctive forces of the Scottish diaspora is the strength of its associational culture – Clan Societies, Caledonian Societies, Burns Societies and many more can be found from Fiji to Philadelphia. That’s why I am trying to contact modern members of the diaspora through yours and societies like it in North America, Canada and England.

I appreciate you and your members may be concerned about confidentiality. I would be keen to work with you in any way possible to benefit from the thoughts of your members whilst still keeping all information confidential.

I would be grateful if you could answer the questions on the attached questionnaire – it should only take about 10 minutes. Save your answers on the document and resend it to me. If you can’t open the document, I have a version in an older version of Microsoft which I can send.

I’d also like to discuss the best way to get the views of as many of your members as possible by them filling in the survey.

I would also be interested in interviewing a selection of respondents over the telephone, if they so wished.

Many thanks

Graham Robson