Glance

Economy: British Prime Minister David Cameron has pledged an emergency budget within 50 days. The coalition wants to reduce the budget deficit quickly, with plans to cut 6 billion pounds ($8.9 billion) of government waste by the end of 2011. It also plans to stop an increase in the national insurance tax. The tax system will be reformed in phases to ease the burden on lower- and middle-income earners. People earning less than 10,000 pounds will pay no tax. A new committee will consider long-term structural banking reform.

Political reform: One of the Liberal Democrats' key demands for joining the coalition government was overhauling Britain's current voting system, which gives disproportionate advantage to the two larger parties. Cameron's Conservatives promised a referendum on the "alternative vote" electoral system, under which voters rank candidates by preference and second-choice votes are allocated if no candidate wins 50 percent of the first preference votes. The result could give Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg's party more seats eventually. Laws will also be changed to introduce five-year fixed-term parliaments.

Defense and security: A new National Security Council was to convene Wednesday to oversee all aspects of British security. The council will focus on policy on Afghanistan and Pakistan as well as review the terrorist threat to Britain. Clegg's party has dropped its outright opposition to replacing Britain's fleet of nuclear-armed submarines, but Cameron has promised to more closely scrutinize the 20 billion pound ($32 billion) program.