Holiday firm promises 'chav-free breaks' with no Britney

LONDON - An activity travel company has emailed customers a list of names that are not likely to appear on one of its "chav-free" holidays, including Britney, Chantelle and Dazza, in a controversial drive designed to appeal to the middle classes.

, which runs pricey trips including husky safaris in Canada and volcano trekking in Costa Rica, sent an email to 24,000 people on its database with a list of names likely to be encountered on one of its trips and a list that were not.

The company developed the strategy based on research that said that children with middle class names were eight times more likely to pass their GCSEs than children with names like Wayne and Dwayne.

Names that made it onto the "unlikely to encounter" list included Britney, Kylie-Lianne, Bianca, Tiffany, Dazza, Chardonnay, Chantelle, Candice, Courtney and Shannon.

Those on the likely list were: John, Sarah, Charles, Rachel, Michael, Alice, Lucy, Joseph and Charlotte.

The email, headed up "Chav Free Activity Holidays" has sparked outrage from some customers who have accused the firm of "smug class warfare" and said they will not use them again.

Despite the backlash managing director Alistair McLean was unrepentant in his response to the complaints.

McLean said: "I simply feel it is time the middle classes stood up for themselves. We work hard to make a decent home and life for our families and we pay our taxes to contribute to our society and economy.

"Unfortunately, everybody else in our society seems to take from us, whether it is incompetent bankers or the shell-suited urchins who haunt our street corners."

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