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If Ed Miliband becomes leader of the Labour Party next month, we can expect "the Cornish question" to move up the political agenda, even if only slightly.

Miliband was on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio Cornwall this morning saying he supported "absolutely" the campaign to maintain whole Parliamentary constituencies within Cornwall and would therefore be voting against the coalition government's Parliamentary Voting and Constituencies Bill.

Only a cynic would suggest that Ed's distaste for this Bill has anything to do with the fact that it would also abolish many of the smaller constituencies which just happen to be, currently, safe Labour seats in the north of England. You can read the Bill

We don't yet know how the other Labour leadership hopefuls feel about constituency boundaries, but I suspect that on this issue they all speak with one voice. I am less confident when it comes to forecasting how Cornwall's six coalition MPs will vote.

The blogger has an interesting post on the subject. I wonder if any mischievous Parliamentary troublemakers will table the sort of "hands off Cornwall" amendment which he suggests:

"At present paragraph 9.3 (1) of Part 2 of the bill reads - Each constituency shall be wholly in one of the four parts of the UK (England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland)

This sentence needs amending to read

Each constituency shall be wholly in one of the five parts of the UK (England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Cornwall)"

An important number in the weeks ahead will the one which tells us the size of the Tory rebellion. Enough to bring down the coalition?

Cornwall's Conservative MPs are generally in favour of the constituency boundaries part of the Bill but opposed to that part of it which seeks a referendum of the Alternative Vote electoral system. The Lib Dem MPs want a change in the voting system and a review of boundary changes. But both Conservative and Lib Dems have said they want to save Cornwall and so are opposed to boundary changes which would effectively sell Saltash and Torpoint to Plymouth.

If there is a form of words which will deliver all of these things, in a single Bill, to both sides of the coalition, I can't imagine what it looks like. Any suggestions?