backlog and avoid the chaos of last year by the Opposition's Grant Gibbons .

The Shadow Finance Minister said many people had to wait for four weeks to get mail from the US as it was routed through Britain as US airlines had little freight space due to smaller aircraft being used in the winter.

He praised courier firm DHL for helping out this year and said Government should get other such firms on board to ensure the credibility of the Post Office wasn't further damaged this year.

"Increasingly people will move to couriers and e-mail,'' he said. "It will affect workers at the Post Office who have jobs there. The Minister of Finance should do more to get this underway.'' He said: "You could get additional capacity through the courier firms.'' He said some families had more at stake than Christmas cards because some needed to get in touch with educational establishments while others might be waiting for important documents.