In June it will be two years since Britain voted to leave the European Union. In less than a year we will be gone.

Or will we? The process was always going to be complicated and painful, and is likely to take longer than expected. And the most recent opinion polls seem to show that many of us are feeling uncomfortable in the departure lounge.

At the time of the referendum, 51.9 per cent of the population voted leave while 48.1 per cent voted to stay.

But according to the findings of a poll last week, 45 per cent of people now feel were are wrong to leave, with 42 per cent supporting it - and 13 per cent undecided.

So is there a case for holding a second referendum, once the final terms of Brexit are clear?

One section of Cumbria’s population bound to be affected by departure are our farmers.

Alistair Mackintosh is a livestock farmer from Ravenglass. He is also Cumbria delegate to the council of the National Farmers’ Union and one of those who voted to remain in the EU.

“The European Union is a massive customer of ours,” he points out. “Why would you cut yourself off from a customer and then strike a new deal?

“We already have a good export situation with those customers. Why would you want to change that?”

He adds: “Some people thought Brexit would mean that regulation would be reduced. I think they were misguided.”

Yet Mr Mackintosh doesn’t see the decision being reversed now.

“A second referendum would be counterproductive,” he predicts. “We have to go with democracy - and having another referendum would be going against democracy.

“We don’t know what Brexit is going to look like. But when we had the referendum there was no talk of having a second one about whether or not we liked it.

“I think we need to move on, and make the best of it we can - and make sure the Brexiteers actually deliver what they’ve promised.

“There’s some pain around the corner for everybody. But we are going to have to get smarter and adapt.”

Dairy farmer Les Armstrong, from Kirkoswald, voted to leave - and doesn’t see the point of another referendum.

“I haven’t changed my mind and I personally don’t think that people have changed their minds.”

Sovereignty was the issue that mattered most to him. “I didn’t vote against immigration - I voted against Europe,” he explains.

“It’s undemocratic, it’s never been audited and it sends down all these diktats that aren’t relevant to us.

“What’s best for us isn’t necessarily the same as for other countries. We are going to decide what is best for our country.”

And he disputes the idea that people weren’t clear about all the implications. “We fully understood that we were leaving the EU and the single market.

“Do we know exactly what it’s going to look like? No. But we are not going to do away with health and safety or workers’ rights or protecting the environment.

"We are not going to do anything stupid. So what would be the point of a second referendum?

“We should trust our elected MPs to get on with it - and if they make a mess of it we can vote them out at the next election.”

Roger Liddle is a Labour member of the House of Lords and county councillor for Wigton. And he has more experience of Europe than most.

He worked for the European Commission and was Tony Blair’s Europe advisor for the first seven years of his premiership. And he has always been an ardent pro-European.

Lord Liddle is not a fan of referenda in principle. But he believes there is a case for a second one. Some of the misinformation and dishonesty in the first one could be avoided this time.

“Clement Attlee once said that the referendum was ‘the device of dictators and demagogues’,” he says. “The people who used them most in the 1930s were fascist dictators.”

However he sees several reasons for holding another. “First of all, the impact of leaving the EU didn’t come out last time.

“We are having a good debate in the House of Lords at the moment about the customs union, but I don’t remember that question every being discussed during the 2016 campaign.

“It’s absolutely vital for companies like Innovia to export to European markets. But if we don’t have some form of customs union, our exporters will face huge delays at borders that are very costly.

“We are going to face all kinds of problems if we are out of the customs union - and yet this was hardly mentioned.”

He adds: ““What’s going to happen to agriculture, what’s going to happen to environmental legislation?”

And the 2016 referendum campaign was beset by exaggerations - and downright falsehoods

“The £350 million extra each week for the NHS, or the five million Turks landing on British shores tomorrow, isn’t happening.

“It wasn’t just among the leavers. There were exaggerations on the remain side as well.”

Many supporters of a second referendum point out that at the time of the first one no-one knew what would follow Brexit. It would be like leaving home without knowing where you’re moving to. So he adds: “A referendum we had now would be on the terms of our exit. It would be a choice about something meaningful.

“We would have a clear view - or a clearer view - of what leaving means.”

If another referendum was held, is the outcome likely to be different? The latest polls suggest that it might be, and Lord Liddle points out: “People in democracies change their minds. We would never have a change of government if they didn’t.”

During the 2016 campaign many leavers argued for “taking back control” while remainers argued for the economic advantages of staying. What it boils down to, Lord Liddle says, is about which you’d rather have.

“It’s a choice between theoretical sovereignty but paying a high price for it, or getting the benefits of the single market and the customs union and being part of an organisation that has helped our security.”

Lord Hugh Cavendish is from Holker Hall near Grange-over-Sands. He also sits in the House of Lords, on the opposite benches from Lord Liddle - and the opposite side of the European argument.

But the Conservative peer agrees with the Labour peer on one thing: that referenda are a bad idea. “They produce this ghastly result that divides the country,” he says.

It is certainly true that the 2016 referendum opened up deep divisions. Most voters in Scotland, Northern Ireland and London opted for remain while those in the rest of England and Wales voted leave. Younger people were more pro-European and older people less so.

In Cumbria the majority were for leaving. But in one district, South Lakeland, most were for staying.

And for this reason Lord Cavendish doesn’t want another. “They divide people and they divide families. Another referendum is just going to open those divisions again.”

Beside he sees a practical difficulty “What on earth would you put in the question?” ‘Do you like the terms?’ or ‘Would you prefer something different?’

“It would be difficult to word it.”

Of the 2016 referendum, he says: “I accept that the result was very narrow, but the truth is you can’t be 52 per cent in or out. It’s a binary situation.

”What really surprised people is that the élite were wrong. The official class said there was zero chance of Britain voting to leave.

“It does us all good to be put back in our box from time to time.”

Maybe it does, but what will the after-effects be? Businesses are often said to dislike uncertainty - and the uncertainty surrounding leaving is troubling to some.

But Lord Cavendish counters: “Most of our businesses wake up with uncertainty every single day of their lives.”

Nor does he accept that they would suffer without the number of EU citizens who work here. He isn’t opposed to immigration - but thinks it needs greater controls.

“I can’t think of a foreign worker here who hasn’t done me a favour, whether it’s in the NHS or picking fruit.

“I certainly wouldn’t stop people coming here. It would be a desperate situation on economic grounds, on political ground, on humanitarian grounds.”

He warns that leaving the EU doesn’t necessarily mean less regulation. Whitehall may impose just as many regulations, or even more.

“I don’t go round blaming the European Union for everything,” he says. “The difference is I can buttonhole my Member of Parliament and ask: ‘What the hell is going on?’

“How many people know their MEP?”