We are walking past Next in the slightly less new than the new bit of the Manchester Arndale on a Sunday afternoon. I must admit, I don't really like the "New Arndale", I was a fan of the old orange toilet-wall-like bricks. They gave the building some character. But now we have to go down the same route as every other place in the world and get our buildings from the Ikea flat pack of red brick, grey plastic and glass.

"So how'd you fancy celebrating Canadian Thanksgiving with some Turkey tonight?" I say to my Canadian Girlfriend.

She looks slightly bemused. She looks like she looked when I explained that "Fred" Flintoff and Andy Flintoff were the same person and weren't brothers or twins.

"It is Thanksgiving on Monday isn't it? Well I thought as a surprise, I'd make a Thanksgiving Dinner" I say smugly.

She smiles and leaps for joy. She looks as happy as she did in Hotel Chocolat when the sample tray emerged from the back of the shop.

"That'd be great. But that means Monday's a Public Holiday at home and I'm gonna miss it. I wonder if I can take the day off for Religious reasons." she muses, looking as sad as she did after her fifth failed attempt to explain Football's off-side rule back to me.

And it made me think, we are woefully short of Public Holidays in England - we only have 8. Spain and Portugal have 14 Public Holidays and even the United States has 13 (Source - the TUC), which is more than most workers get in statutory leave. So we need at least three more bank holidays in the UK.

Current Bank Holidays are too bunched up at the moment so we also need to do something to spread them out. To make sure we spread them out, I suggest having one of the extra ones in February or March - one possibility is Pancake Day, a much better option than Valentines Day.

The other one would need to be at the end of the year - How about Remembrance Day? It would be a nice start date for the Christmas celebrations and give everyone the time to sit back and reflect on the sacrifice that those brave young men blah blah blah. (It also happens to be my Birthday)

So that only leaves one day. It would be nice to have one at the height of the Summer. Probably not in early August since everyone and their dog is already off work taking their Brats to Magaluf. June is too early plus there are already two in May. So mid-July it is, during the Twenty20 league stage.

But I don't like the idea of having a new Bank Holiday and not having a specific reason for it, it just seems a bit odd. How about we have an Independence Day? It makes perfect sense doesn't it? Now all we need to do is co-ordinate the overthrowing of the Royal Family during the second weekend in July and then we'll be all set.