A man who cannot, without inordinate delay, decide which type of biscuit he favours most does not sound like the right person to make swift judgments on critical matters of national moment.

This was the picture painted by David Cameron, the Tory leader, during his noisy exchanges with the Prime Minister in the Commons today on the Royal Mail dispute.

Mr Brown must now bitterly regret that he kept the world waiting for so long before letting it be known that biscuits containing "a bit of chocolate" were to his particular liking.

Alas for him, his dithering over his choice of biscuits seems likely to plague him for weeks to come.

Mr Cameron introduced this important matter after describing the Prime Minister's "appalling display of weakness" in his response so far to the post dispute.

And the Opposition leader reinforced his argument by saying that the Prime Minister had effectively dropped a Bill designed to reform the Royal Mail because he did not trust his own back-benchers to support it.

For his part, Mr Brown rejected the idea that this Bill had anything to do with the dispute but the 2007 modernisation plan was at the heart of the trouble.

And he urged Mr Cameron to reflect on whether his remarks were making it any easier to solve the dispute - an implication that he believed the Tory leader was actually making things more difficult.

Mr Brown can be assured that when, eventually, the Royal Mail issue is over and long forgotten, he will not be allowed to forget the Great Chocolate Biscuit Saga.