Opinion: Sharon Griffiths reckons it's time we squeezed in another bank holiday...

Well, that's it. Summer's over. School starts this week. Life is real, life is earnest. Time to ditch the flip-flops, buy some boots, order logs and get ready for the long haul through autumn.

Do you realise that our next public holiday isn't until Christmas Day? Sigh…

It's all right for teachers and children, at least they'll get half term but the rest of us will just have to keep on keeping on until it's dark at four o'clock. That's a pretty grim thought.

I'm not a huge fan of bank holidays – there must be a better way – but if we're going to have them, then at least we could spread them about a bit, bring a bit of joy into the encircling gloom.

There's a log jam in spring, one last Monday and then… nothing…

Even if we introduced Jeremy Corbyn's plans to make our national saints' days public holidays, that would still leave the Welsh, the Irish and the English with yet another spring bank holiday and the Scots with the last day of November, which is a bit late in the year.

The Americans have Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday in November, which is very much a family occasion but that's their holiday, not ours – despite efforts to make us eat pumpkin pie or join in the next day's retail madness on Black Friday.

A day in mid October would be nice, would it not? Admire the leaves, have an outing before the clocks go back, grab the last bit of almost-warm sunshine. It can be a very pleasant time of year. St Luke's Summer often gives us a spell of mild weather. Maybe we could turn St Luke's Day, October 18, into a bank holiday.

Or we could celebrate October 25 and the battle of Agincourt when we beat the French. Always worth a cheer. Cry God for Harry! England and St George! Or Trafalgar Day on October 21 when Nelson hammered the French AND the Spanish. Well, if we're going for Brexit we might as well do it in style and remind them who they're dealing with.

Or if we were feeling reconciliatory we could always go for October which is UN Day. No, I didn't know either but it might make us look friendly and international.

Still, there are plenty of occasions for us to mark with a day off and a chance to buy sofas.

We've had snow in mid-October before now, of course. But at least it would be a day off.

And we could always make a start on the Christmas cards.