Radical independent politician Henry Trebell is persuaded to join the Conservative Party in order to champion his Bill to Disestablish the Church of England and to use its funds to finance a vast education programme. But a liaison with a married woman, who dies after aborting their child, brings private scandal into the political arena. Written in 1907 but banned by the Lord Chamberlain, Waste received its first production almost thirty year's later in 1936 at the Westminster Theatre.