it's a shame that they don't have abilities to think for themselves
You noticed that too? ;^)
It appears to me that Ms. Tunstall knows very little of her country's history. From 4000 BC to 1000 BC, Scotland was agriculturally productive. Since then, climate changes have made Scotland a harsher land.
Obviously, I need to go back for further study (reading from a book on Ancient Scotland), but it did strike me that in 6000 BC, sea levels were nine meters higher than at present.