Really?
The UK Banks were effectively nationalized recently and now they have turned around.
Air NZ had to be saved by the Government after the stupidity of Selwyn Cushing and co. With Fyfe in charge, it's now the darling of the aviation world.
It's not such a stupid idea.
Regain control (of what was after all a public asset in the first place) at an amazingly/disgustingly low share price. Replace the management who caused the share price to tumble with non-adversarial yet innovative types (a la ANZ) and re-privatise later with gradual share bloc sell-offs.
It's actually the only GOOD idea yet...