Set your video for this one. It sounds like a cracker

You have to hand it to RTE. Just when you think they couldn't possibly get any worse they go and come up with something like this - Class Reunion.

That's the name of the centrepiece of their, ahem, exciting new schedule.

A programme that sounds uncannily like something Alan Partridge would have tried to create in his more desperate moments, Class Reunion sees Irish 'celebrities' return to their old school and classmates and, well, that's it.

Starting this Sunday, and boasting a guest list which reads like The Late Late Show on a very, very bad night, the programme is hosted by none other than Gay Byrne.

Picture the scene: you're a shy and retiring but much-loved public figure like, for instance, Adi Roche or Pat Spillane. You talk for a few minutes to Gaybo, reminiscing on your schooldays (they were hard but fair, we didn't have a penny to our name but we were happy, blah blah blah) and then they... wait for it... bring you back to the school! And wheel out some of your old classmates! What genius!

Described with an admirable lack of shame as " This Is Your Life crossed with School Around The Corner" this is further proof that somebody in power in RTE really, really hates the rest of us and wants to see us suffer.

But there is potential in the programme.

After all, who wouldn't want to see Brendan O'Carroll go back to his old school, only to be confronted by his old class bully who for the sake of nostalgia once more batters the head off him? Just for old times sake, like.

Now that would be worth the licence fee alone.

They still haven't learned, have they? Today sees the official marking of the liberation of Auschwitz but it seems that even 60 years on the Germans haven't really learned that much from their mistakes.

While Chancellor Gerhard Schroder made a decent enough speech on behalf of the German people earlier this week, the German law which makes Holocaust denial illegal is exactly the kind of dogmatic nonsense which got them into such trouble in the first place.

Likewise, the EU plan to make wearing or displaying a swastika against the law is the kind of attempt to create a 'thought crime' which we should all be opposing.

Obviously the Holocaust happened and anyone in denial about it - David Irving springs inevitably to mind - is a moron. But it shouldn't be against the law to be a moron.

In a free society you should have the right to deny the Holocaust ever happened - it's when people start calling for it to happen again that we should be worried.

And, while the Eurocrats no doubt feel happy with their politicallly-correct plans to ban the swastika, what's the point?

If someone wants to wear a swastika on their arm or display a swastika flag from their house they should be allowed to do so.

Of course, any consequences they then suffer are their own fault...

You must remember this, a kiss is just a ... Bad news today for people who are fond of a bit of nookie - it can make you ill.

According to Swiss killjoy Dr Tillmann Kruefer, getting laid more than twice a week can lower your immune system, cause the unwelcome spread of germs and ultimately shorten your life span.

This follows on a Swedish survey which claims that 40,000 parasites and 250 types of bacteria are exchanged during a typical French kiss.

Although what on earth the researchers were actually kissing when they came up with that lovely image wasn't explained.

Don't be daft, Halle While there is no doubt that Halle Berry is a fine looking woman, we've always found her rather daft.

Prone to coming out with the stream of consciousness pycho-babble so often used by Hollywood stars desperate to make themselves seem brighter than they actually are, she is also guilty of the worst Oscar acceptance speech since Gwyneth Paltrow (another woman fond of talking gibberish, actually).

But Berry now claims that Hollywood is "institutionally racist" and that they deliberately keep black women away from great roles.

"A woman of colour has to go and try and create good roles for herself," she says, "because Hollywood simply doesn't offer them."

Or maybe it could simply be that after Catwoman nobody wants to employ her?

Oh for God's sake, PC madness once more We're big fans of Rodney Marsh here at ISpy.

Despite his likely lad image, his analysis of the game is invariably astute and he is far more prepared to call things as he sees them than most other ex-pros earning their crust as a pundit.

But we were baffled by his assertion on You're On Sky Sports that David Beckham would never sign for Newcastle because of "what the Toon Army did in Asia".

We couldn't figure out when the Tyneside club were last in Asia but he made a really bad pun and reference to the tsunami.

A bad joke in bad taste, for sure, but the news that Sky has sacked him because of his "offensive and inexcusable comments" is simply ridiculous.

"These remarks should never have been made and Sky would like to offer its apologies to those who were offended," said the broadcaster in a press release yesterday.

But who on earth would really be offended by what was simply a really, really weak gag?

In a sensible world, Marsh would be brought back onto the show and made to apologise and then the matter would be dropped.

But nobody ever said we live in a sensible world, did they?

Ian O'Doherty iodoherty@unison.independent.ie