Semi retired Chemist. Having worked in the Chemical Industry for a number of years, and switching to teaching at a small independent school,
Joined February 2017
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Mark Wapples retweeted
SIR PATRICK STEWART (1940-2026)
Before everything else, Patrick was defined by being born and bred in Yorkshire, the proud county in the north of England which he loved to the end. You could hear it in his accented voice and in the stern honesty with which he told you what he thought and felt. Yorkshiremen have no truck with half-truths or avoidance of big issues. He wore his heart on his sleeve, which made him a man to rely on, to admire and in my case, love.
We first met as ambitious young actors with the Royal Shakespeare Company half a century ago but we weren’t in the same productions. My first strong memory was a few years later, meeting him in the street in central London when he told me about an offer to take over a leading part in 'Star Trek'. “But Patrick think of your stage career in the UK. Do you really want to risk—getting lost in Hollywood for years and years?”. Well, he took the risk and thank goodness for us all that he did for not just his devoted Trekkies but film and theatre audiences, who marvelled at his using international celebrity to star in a string of cinema successes ('X-Men' of course) and in great classical plays by Shakespeare, Ibsen, Arthur Miller, Peter Shaffer, Pinter and Beckett at Stratford-upon-Avon, in London’s West End and on Broadway.
America was his adopted home, where he met his adored Sunny who has cared for him through sickness and health, through thick and thin. But he never forsook his origins: and the proudest achievement of the most respected and beloved actor of his generation on either side of the Atlantic, was his appointment as Chancellor of Huddersfield University in Yorkshire.
His farewell performance in 'Avengers: Doomsday' is yet to be seen.
Ian McKellen 29 October 2026
Photo: University of Huddersfield
Mark Wapples retweeted
We are delighted to share our Ofsted report which was published today, recognising we are ‘strong’ in all areas of our academy provision. We are so proud of our staff and students who work so hard, and this report recognises how special our school is.💙 reports.ofsted.gov.uk/provid…
Mark Wapples retweeted
Meanwhile, in the real world, global wildfire burn area is the lowest on record year-to-date.
Reality does not quite square with Mohamad's United Nations propaganda.
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Mark Wapples retweeted
This is awful. The last ever Denby Pottery going to the kiln. Why is there not uproar? Where’s the government in this?? We all have Denby in our homes, in family heirlooms, as our history and now it’s closing through lack of support, such a sad sad day. #SaveDenby @denbypottery
Mark Wapples retweeted
A fantastic opportunity to come and be a key nember of our team. Please repost 👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇
🚨Teacher of science required🚨
This is a very rare opportunity to come and work in our superb science team and at our amazing school.
Please see the advert and job description below. Please get in touch if you want a visit or a call with our Principal
trinitymat.org/all-vacancies…
Please don't accept DMs from my account. Someone managed to get my details and tried to hack my account. Fortunately X identified an attempt and alerted me and I managed to change the password before they did too much. Please check your security.
Mark Wapples retweeted
So disgusted by this…
Worked with Maureen in 2015 on a play, in Birmingham & London, & there were concerns for her safety even then.
This abysmally foul & downright dangerous attempt to demonise & cancel her should outrage & sicken us all.
Arts: SPEAK UP & OUT!
RT 🙏
Just had the pleasure of watching Jethro Tull at Bradford St Georges Hall.
First watched them in the early eighties at Nostell Priory.
All I can say is you are never to old to Rock n Roll if you are too young to die.
#JethroTull
Mark Wapples retweeted
BREAKING: The Islamic Republic is preparing to hang eight women.
Not a word from the international community or so-called human rights organizations.
Mark Wapples retweeted
Vegans: "Drinking cow's milk is unnatural!"
Great point.
So instead of pulling on some teats for thirty seconds, we've developed a twelve-step industrial alternative.
Step one: grow almonds in California, a drought-afflicted state currently depleting an aquifer that took twenty thousand years to fill.
Step two: ship them to a processing facility.
Step three: soak them in water. California water, specifically, because almonds need 15 gallons per ounce and California is already rationing.
Step four: pulverise them into a slurry.
Step five: filter the slurry through fine mesh, discarding most of the actual almond in the process. That was the bit with the nutrition in it. Gone now.
Step six: add more water, because the resulting liquid isn't watery enough.
Step seven: add sweeteners, because it tastes of nothing.
Step eight: add emulsifiers, because it separates in six minutes otherwise.
Step nine: add synthetic vitamins, because all the natural ones left in step five.
Step ten: add seed oils, because we apparently learned nothing.
Step eleven: homogenise, degas, pasteurise, and sterilise the mixture until it resembles no food that has ever existed in nature.
Step twelve: put it in a carton with a picture of a field on it.
The cow: stands in a field. Makes milk. Has done this for ten thousand years. No factory. No steps. No aquifer.
Unnatural, though. Very unnatural.
I'm sat outside our caravan listening in to a marvellous conversation in a neighbouring caravan between a man and his grandson.
The grandson is amazed that anybody could be older than his grandad.
I feel deeply offended as he only looks a couple of years older than me.
Somebody pinched the last Yorkshire tea bag at school today leaving only a round shaped one that tasted horrible.
Dining room had no chips.
Got home to walk the dogs and it's chucking it down
Just realised why. it's s Friday the 13th.
Mark Wapples retweeted
From inside Iran:
"This is probably my last message.
The regime is going door to door, confiscating satelite dishes and Starlink. Just like in the early 2000s.
Be our voice."
Mark Wapples retweeted
Name in lights! The Oscars of the Teaching world! Silver winner but definitely gold in our eyes! Well done Miss Mac! @TeachingAwards
Mark Wapples retweeted
🌟Thrilled to win the STEM Educator Award at the #STEMAwards2025!🌟
Every lesson, robot race, cybersecurity challenge and unforgettable trip was for the learners who inspire me every single day. Thank you to everyone who’s supported me and believed in the power of STEM! 🙌🖥️🚀
Mark Wapples retweeted
Miliband refused to discuss North Sea with me, says Ratcliffe
Ineos owner urges policymakers to reform net zero taxes or risk ‘irreversible decline’
Sir Jim Ratcliffe warned that Britain’s chemical industry faces extinction
Credit: Dirk Waem/AFP via Getty Images
Jonathan LeakeEnergy Editor
09 October 2025 6:30am BST
Sir Jim Ratcliffe was stonewalled by Ed Miliband when he asked the Energy Secretary to discuss his policies on net zero and the North Sea, the industrialist has said.
The billionaire owner of chemicals giant Ineos said Mr Miliband refused to engage in a discussion about Labour’s North Sea drilling ban in a call with industry bosses.
Sir Jim said: “I was on a video call with him and I asked him whether he could explain his policy on energy and the North Sea, but he wasn’t prepared to engage. He said, ‘I’m sorry, but that’s my policy. I’m not prepared to talk about it’.
“I haven’t tried to meet him again – there’s no point in wasting my time.”
Mr Miliband’s policies are under growing scrutiny after data showed Britain’s businesses continued to pay the highest energy prices in the world for the second consecutive year.
The Energy Secretary has been accused of driving up electricity costs by adding green levies on to bills to fund renewables.
This week Ineos said it had cut a fifth of jobs at its Hull chemical plant, blaming cheap Chinese imports and energy costs linked to so-called carbon taxes.
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The company has warned its Grangemouth chemicals plant also faces closure after shutting its oil refinery on the same site last year.
Mr Miliband has repeatedly stressed that net zero was not to blame for soaring prices. However, critics have warned his plans to switch Britain’s power system to 95pc clean energy by 2030 risks driving up prices even further.
Sir Jim said it was time for the Government to start listening to business or risk deindustrialisation in Britain.
He said: “I am calling on politicians to make an 11th hour intervention and save the chemical industry.
“Carbon taxes are costing the Grangemouth plant £130m a year – the plant is stressed.
“The site is the size of the City of London and we need a lot of cash just to maintain it. But that money is going to the Government.
“If these carbon taxes remain they will eventually shut down all the chemical plants in Europe, and the products will be replaced by either American or Chinese imports.”
Miliband refused to discuss North Sea with me, says Ratcliffe
telegraph.co.uk/business/202…
Mark Wapples retweeted
NHS Fife bans trans women from female spaces amid nurse tribunal @thetimes
@HJoyceGender: “This long-overdue move by NHS Fife ... is a devastating blow to the arguments the health board made in Sandie Peggie’s employment tribunal.”
thetimes.com/uk/scotland/art…