After draining Pilsener, former PM cut short waffling speech (7)
I believe the answer is:
prattle
'waffling speech' is the definition.
'prattle' can be an answer for 'waffling' (thesaurus). I am not certain of the 'speech' bit.
'after draining pilsener former pm cut short' is the wordplay.
'after' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'draining' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters) (I've seen 'drained' mean this).
'former pm' becomes 'Attlee' (prime minister Clement Attlee).
'cut short' means to remove the last letter.
'pilsener' with its middle removed is 'pr'.
'attlee' with its final letter taken off is 'attle'.
'pr'+'attle' is 'PRATTLE'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for prattle that I've seen before include "Be vapidly garrulous" , "Foolish talk" , "rabbit" , "Talk inconsequentially" , "Talk childishly" .)