Single market, singular irony

IN THE exchange of caricatures that passes for debate about the future of the European Union, the reaction to the decision by Renault to close a car plant in Belgium ran true to form. To the afflicted workers this was “social dumping”. To the European Commission's top brass it was an embarrassment: the single market was not supposed to be about one country sacking the workers of a fellow member. And to Britain's ever-vigilant Tory Eurosceptics, the reaction of those top brass was in turn confirmation that the whole European project is incorrigibly hostile to the free market.