Well, they picked one winner - Leyland - and force-merged them with all the losers, in the hope that Leyland's magic would somehow infuse them. Instead, it destroyed them all. Some of the brands, like Jaguar, Daimler, Land Rover, etc live on. But not as British companies.

> Was it a disaster or did they just pick the losing team.

The government always picks the losing team. The winning team doesn't want anything to do with the government.