There's a Yes Minister clip they've been using as a blueprint since the 80s (well, before that too, but the clip exemplified it)

Bernard Woolley: What if the Prime Minister insists we help them?
Appleby: Then we follow the four-stage strategy.
Woolley: What’s that?
Sir Richard Wharton: Standard Foreign Office response in a time of crisis. In stage one we say nothing is going to happen.
Appleby: Stage two, we say something may be about to happen, but we should do nothing about it.
Wharton: In stage three, we say that maybe we should do something about it, but there’s nothing we can do.
Appleby: Stage four, we say maybe there was something we could have done, but it’s too late now.