Joe Spivey
@joespivey2002.bsky.social
Reader, bleeder and mercy pleader
Champions League Final
May 30th
PSG 7 - 0 Arsenal
May 30th
PSG 7 - 0 Arsenal
May 5, 2026 at 8:57 PM
Champions League Final
May 30th
PSG 7 - 0 Arsenal
May 30th
PSG 7 - 0 Arsenal
Chelsea went to the Parc des Princes, tried to play heroically, and were undone by the random skill of Europe’s best. Tonight Liverpool went there as sorrowful gimps and were lucky not to lose by six.
April 8, 2026 at 8:58 PM
Chelsea went to the Parc des Princes, tried to play heroically, and were undone by the random skill of Europe’s best. Tonight Liverpool went there as sorrowful gimps and were lucky not to lose by six.
I love adversarial parliaments because they select against the pussy-grabbers and other fuckwits who might otherwise stink out high office. Imagine if Trump had to justify himself every Wednesday noon while the Democrats blew bureaucratic raspberries at him.
April 5, 2026 at 8:19 PM
I love adversarial parliaments because they select against the pussy-grabbers and other fuckwits who might otherwise stink out high office. Imagine if Trump had to justify himself every Wednesday noon while the Democrats blew bureaucratic raspberries at him.
I know all Chelsea fans are berating Clearlake (me uppermost among them) but would Cech have saved those screamers from Barcola and Mayulu, and would Mourinho have stopped Kravatskhelia? We were pumped and embarrassed ….but has a more formidable CL team than PSG been seen for ten years?
March 18, 2026 at 11:26 PM
I know all Chelsea fans are berating Clearlake (me uppermost among them) but would Cech have saved those screamers from Barcola and Mayulu, and would Mourinho have stopped Kravatskhelia? We were pumped and embarrassed ….but has a more formidable CL team than PSG been seen for ten years?
That, faced with top-down tyranny in the United States, the gun-clinching conservatives are the ones splaying themselves in front of its seduction and sweatily defending its enforcers while the limp lefties are the ones opposing it with gritty courage, is an irony both massive and sickening.
January 24, 2026 at 10:22 PM
That, faced with top-down tyranny in the United States, the gun-clinching conservatives are the ones splaying themselves in front of its seduction and sweatily defending its enforcers while the limp lefties are the ones opposing it with gritty courage, is an irony both massive and sickening.
Christianity, to Holland, is an unnoticed yet vital source of moral oxygen. But to suppose modern conceptions of goodness come SOLELY from that prophet’s teachings is to insult our special fleet of faculties. The conscience shuddered before God, and it’ll shudder long after him too.
January 23, 2026 at 11:09 PM
Christianity, to Holland, is an unnoticed yet vital source of moral oxygen. But to suppose modern conceptions of goodness come SOLELY from that prophet’s teachings is to insult our special fleet of faculties. The conscience shuddered before God, and it’ll shudder long after him too.
There is now an enemy so fierce in its territorial intent, so ravenous in its oppressive crushing of domestic opponents, and so appalling in its inversions of reality, that Europe must force herself to fear it. Oh…..and Russia is a nasty place too.
January 22, 2026 at 10:53 PM
There is now an enemy so fierce in its territorial intent, so ravenous in its oppressive crushing of domestic opponents, and so appalling in its inversions of reality, that Europe must force herself to fear it. Oh…..and Russia is a nasty place too.
Montaigne’s four hundred year newness is astonishing. Snide, slippery, and yet intellectually seductive, I’ve never read essays that jog at a more convenient speed alongside our intemperate modern minds. From boozing to speciesism, from radishes to Pythagorus, all done with a cherubic caution.
January 15, 2026 at 4:43 PM
Montaigne’s four hundred year newness is astonishing. Snide, slippery, and yet intellectually seductive, I’ve never read essays that jog at a more convenient speed alongside our intemperate modern minds. From boozing to speciesism, from radishes to Pythagorus, all done with a cherubic caution.
The England cricket team’s juvenile contempt for external forces, its six-swatting solipsism and its inability to embrace tactical change, have in concert seen them fall as hard as every touring side always does. McCullum and Stokes, with their bucket hats and baggy trousers, are no visionaries.
January 8, 2026 at 4:13 PM
The England cricket team’s juvenile contempt for external forces, its six-swatting solipsism and its inability to embrace tactical change, have in concert seen them fall as hard as every touring side always does. McCullum and Stokes, with their bucket hats and baggy trousers, are no visionaries.
Today marks 5 years since
my Trump disavowal. Until Jan 6th (without ever supporting him) I was happy for that repellant raptor to be my enemy’s enemy and therefore my friend. The schadenfreude with which I saw him soil safe norms to that point, is a mark of this century’s ability to pervert!
my Trump disavowal. Until Jan 6th (without ever supporting him) I was happy for that repellant raptor to be my enemy’s enemy and therefore my friend. The schadenfreude with which I saw him soil safe norms to that point, is a mark of this century’s ability to pervert!
January 6, 2026 at 8:23 PM
Today marks 5 years since
my Trump disavowal. Until Jan 6th (without ever supporting him) I was happy for that repellant raptor to be my enemy’s enemy and therefore my friend. The schadenfreude with which I saw him soil safe norms to that point, is a mark of this century’s ability to pervert!
my Trump disavowal. Until Jan 6th (without ever supporting him) I was happy for that repellant raptor to be my enemy’s enemy and therefore my friend. The schadenfreude with which I saw him soil safe norms to that point, is a mark of this century’s ability to pervert!
“The lions, i.e the ladies, have got the brush in their hands with a vengeance now, and are retaliating for the calumnies of men from Adam downwards. Perhaps it is but fair to allow them a little exaggeration.”
- George Eliot (Geraldine Jewsbury’s ‘Constance Herbert’)
- George Eliot (Geraldine Jewsbury’s ‘Constance Herbert’)
January 6, 2026 at 7:51 PM
“The lions, i.e the ladies, have got the brush in their hands with a vengeance now, and are retaliating for the calumnies of men from Adam downwards. Perhaps it is but fair to allow them a little exaggeration.”
- George Eliot (Geraldine Jewsbury’s ‘Constance Herbert’)
- George Eliot (Geraldine Jewsbury’s ‘Constance Herbert’)
“Fatally powerful as religious systems have been, human nature is stronger and wider than religious systems, and though dogmas may hamper, they cannot absolutely repress its growth: build walls round the living tree as you will, the bricks and mortar have by and by to give way” - George Eliot.
January 5, 2026 at 4:27 PM
“Fatally powerful as religious systems have been, human nature is stronger and wider than religious systems, and though dogmas may hamper, they cannot absolutely repress its growth: build walls round the living tree as you will, the bricks and mortar have by and by to give way” - George Eliot.
Just in case your algorithms are aggressively trying to tell you otherwise, Donald Trump does not care about electoral legitimacy, suppressed dissidents, or any more of Maduro’s many sins. This was a grab without pretext; as a toddler might select a ladybird from the sill and pluck its wings.
January 4, 2026 at 12:00 AM
Just in case your algorithms are aggressively trying to tell you otherwise, Donald Trump does not care about electoral legitimacy, suppressed dissidents, or any more of Maduro’s many sins. This was a grab without pretext; as a toddler might select a ladybird from the sill and pluck its wings.
Some personal thoughts on an ENORMOUS game at Wembley.
They are, at last, ready to win.
Hull KR at Wembley
substack.com
June 6, 2025 at 10:22 AM
Some personal thoughts on an ENORMOUS game at Wembley.
“Eyre Crowe’s question had always been: ‘Should the war come, and England stand aside…[and] Germany and Austria win, crush France and humiliate Russia, what will then be the position of a friendless England?’ The historian’s answer is: better than an exhausted England in 1919.”
The Pity of War
The Pity of War
May 22, 2025 at 1:01 PM
“Eyre Crowe’s question had always been: ‘Should the war come, and England stand aside…[and] Germany and Austria win, crush France and humiliate Russia, what will then be the position of a friendless England?’ The historian’s answer is: better than an exhausted England in 1919.”
The Pity of War
The Pity of War
It’s two years since Amis died, and his scything bountiful charisma is the still the standard against which all scribblers are judged. He dropped the literary drawbridge to a simple-minded young Spivey and his critical swagger upholsters my mind still!
May 19, 2025 at 9:09 PM
It’s two years since Amis died, and his scything bountiful charisma is the still the standard against which all scribblers are judged. He dropped the literary drawbridge to a simple-minded young Spivey and his critical swagger upholsters my mind still!
My latest ⬇️
“Mouth-breathing mortals abandon realism at their peril. Ropner Hall and its habitants (both lazily stateless) do not cohere in the presentation of a believable, smooth story. The author’s predilections for madness make The Ladie Upstairs a jarring, mirthfully obscure hallucinogen.”
“Mouth-breathing mortals abandon realism at their peril. Ropner Hall and its habitants (both lazily stateless) do not cohere in the presentation of a believable, smooth story. The author’s predilections for madness make The Ladie Upstairs a jarring, mirthfully obscure hallucinogen.”
The Ladie Upstairs — Open Letters Review
A review of Jessie Elland’s debut novel
openlettersreview.com
May 19, 2025 at 8:59 PM
My latest ⬇️
“Mouth-breathing mortals abandon realism at their peril. Ropner Hall and its habitants (both lazily stateless) do not cohere in the presentation of a believable, smooth story. The author’s predilections for madness make The Ladie Upstairs a jarring, mirthfully obscure hallucinogen.”
“Mouth-breathing mortals abandon realism at their peril. Ropner Hall and its habitants (both lazily stateless) do not cohere in the presentation of a believable, smooth story. The author’s predilections for madness make The Ladie Upstairs a jarring, mirthfully obscure hallucinogen.”
Trollope on the obsession (prominent in his age and ubiquitous in ours) with the writerly spark ⬇️
“To me it would not be more absurd if the shoemaker were to wait for inspiration, or the tallow-chandler for the divine moment of melting.”
“To me it would not be more absurd if the shoemaker were to wait for inspiration, or the tallow-chandler for the divine moment of melting.”
May 8, 2025 at 6:44 PM
Trollope on the obsession (prominent in his age and ubiquitous in ours) with the writerly spark ⬇️
“To me it would not be more absurd if the shoemaker were to wait for inspiration, or the tallow-chandler for the divine moment of melting.”
“To me it would not be more absurd if the shoemaker were to wait for inspiration, or the tallow-chandler for the divine moment of melting.”
Within its ‘analytical’ sections, this book has all the bigoted bloviation I expected. The slippery attribution of modern meaningless to atheism gives it a repulsive piety. It coarsens throughout and cradles at the end, leavened by equivocations just in case we mistook Murray for a monster.
May 4, 2025 at 7:40 PM
Within its ‘analytical’ sections, this book has all the bigoted bloviation I expected. The slippery attribution of modern meaningless to atheism gives it a repulsive piety. It coarsens throughout and cradles at the end, leavened by equivocations just in case we mistook Murray for a monster.
My latest Substack⬇️
“What will happen when all the foreigners’ removal does not result in national prosperity? What will happen when Reform’s otherwise scant knowledge base is shown to be ludicrously unbecoming for high office? These will be phenomena for the next generation of political analysts.”
“What will happen when all the foreigners’ removal does not result in national prosperity? What will happen when Reform’s otherwise scant knowledge base is shown to be ludicrously unbecoming for high office? These will be phenomena for the next generation of political analysts.”
The Reformation
Could Farage's phalanx take back control?
open.substack.com
April 30, 2025 at 4:01 PM
My latest Substack⬇️
“What will happen when all the foreigners’ removal does not result in national prosperity? What will happen when Reform’s otherwise scant knowledge base is shown to be ludicrously unbecoming for high office? These will be phenomena for the next generation of political analysts.”
“What will happen when all the foreigners’ removal does not result in national prosperity? What will happen when Reform’s otherwise scant knowledge base is shown to be ludicrously unbecoming for high office? These will be phenomena for the next generation of political analysts.”
My latest ⬇️
“If only Harding had given more splendour to his sentences and given more umph to his explorations, we might’ve been witnesses to a remarkable book on the incommensurability of Nazism and science, the vanity of hope in fascistic countries, or the temporal erosion of human empathy.”
“If only Harding had given more splendour to his sentences and given more umph to his explorations, we might’ve been witnesses to a remarkable book on the incommensurability of Nazism and science, the vanity of hope in fascistic countries, or the temporal erosion of human empathy.”
The Einstein Vendetta — Open Letters Review
The true story of a Nazi-era murder
openlettersreview.com
April 28, 2025 at 3:46 PM
My latest ⬇️
“If only Harding had given more splendour to his sentences and given more umph to his explorations, we might’ve been witnesses to a remarkable book on the incommensurability of Nazism and science, the vanity of hope in fascistic countries, or the temporal erosion of human empathy.”
“If only Harding had given more splendour to his sentences and given more umph to his explorations, we might’ve been witnesses to a remarkable book on the incommensurability of Nazism and science, the vanity of hope in fascistic countries, or the temporal erosion of human empathy.”
A media outlet discusses how his every belch and bleat is inexplicably covered, by inexplicably covering his latest belch and bleat! Reform have a grand sum of four MPs, and yet he need only wobbly his goiter for the nation’s press to congregate!
April 24, 2025 at 10:02 PM
A media outlet discusses how his every belch and bleat is inexplicably covered, by inexplicably covering his latest belch and bleat! Reform have a grand sum of four MPs, and yet he need only wobbly his goiter for the nation’s press to congregate!
Guileless, gibbersome and frantically frayed with inexactitudes. This was Peterson’s worst performance to date. His syllable-heavy sermonising and his drawling sanctimony is now unparalleled. I can’t believe I used to defend this flaccid charlatan at university gatherings!
April 19, 2025 at 7:54 PM
Guileless, gibbersome and frantically frayed with inexactitudes. This was Peterson’s worst performance to date. His syllable-heavy sermonising and his drawling sanctimony is now unparalleled. I can’t believe I used to defend this flaccid charlatan at university gatherings!
Like my own Kingston Rovers, Arsenal have for years conducted themselves in a professional manner and beaten most with a soldierly doggedness. That performance in Madrid was more elegant and much wilier. They’ve put away the CL holders. Who’s to say they won’t visit similar expertise on PSG?
April 16, 2025 at 9:25 PM
Like my own Kingston Rovers, Arsenal have for years conducted themselves in a professional manner and beaten most with a soldierly doggedness. That performance in Madrid was more elegant and much wilier. They’ve put away the CL holders. Who’s to say they won’t visit similar expertise on PSG?
Hell, I would be the last person to save Douglas Murray from a stint in the intellectual slammer, but his invoking expertise during an age of boundless stupidity should be cheered. Rogan has been emboldening and legitimising pillocks and warped theorists for years!
April 15, 2025 at 8:54 PM
Hell, I would be the last person to save Douglas Murray from a stint in the intellectual slammer, but his invoking expertise during an age of boundless stupidity should be cheered. Rogan has been emboldening and legitimising pillocks and warped theorists for years!