What I used to say, until 4 March this year, was that I did not expect Scottish independence to happen in autumn next year. I think the figures already looked a bit dismal, but I was certain it would happen in my lifetime.

Of course, now it looks as though my lifetime won't extend until autumn next year. So my neat comparison has kind of fallen by the wayside. Nevertheless, I would still hope that in the unlikely event I live as long as my dad – who died when he was 91 – then I shall die in an independent Scotland on the best possible terms with its big English neighbour.

The difference between the Scottish and the English, which I guess we have to put down to cultural differences (though of course it could be something in the water) are sufficient and long-term enough that this effective divorce between Scotland and England makes sense for both parties.

It makes the most sense for the Scots because, as the junior partner, we are much more aware of the differences (looking at the reception which Nigel Farage received in Edinburgh recently, compared to the surge in support for Ukip in England, you might wish to characterise it as a generosity of spirit in the Celts, matched by a meanness of spirit in some, but not all, English people). It is also about politics, in the sense that the difference in demeanour between the English and the Scots simply cannot be accounted for in a kind of winner-takes-all situation, where the English are always the winners – because you guys are 10 times as many.

The system we have at the moment does not reflect the way Scots really feel. It does sometimes come down to very specific issues: I've talked to a number of Scottish writers in particular, and we all felt that we would vote for independence purely never to be part of any more unnecessary illegal, immoral wars.

The question of independence only really became germane with the end of one-nation Conservatism and the Labour party stopping being the Labour party when it became New Labour and pro-privatisation. A lot of Scots would vote for nationalism just to save our already semi-independent version of the National Health Service.

I don't think my feelings have intensified since I've been so involved with the NHS due to my illness – that feeling was always there – but it has certainly brought it home to me, at an individual level, how much we rely on it.

• Iain Banks is a multi-award-winning Scottish author. In April he announced that he had been diagnosed with terminal cancer of the gall bladder.