NOBODY was going to prevent me from asking ex-US president Bill Clinton the question York people wanted answering.

The question? Exactly why did he give his secretly planned visit to York Minster a miss yesterday even though he was in the vicinity to speak at the Yorkshire International Business Convention at the Great Yorkshire Showground in Harrogate?

Every effort was made to prevent me - and the rest of the media pack - from approaching the former leader of the free world, in spite of being formally invited.

Cannon & Ball were let in. So were the likes of Greg Dyke, Director General of the BBC, Rebecca Stephens, the first British woman to climb Everest, and Chris Moon, the Cambodian landmine amputee, marathon runner and author. But not us.

Heavies puffed their chests door-wide and insisted that only BBC and Yorkshire Television cameramen were allowed into the £2.25 million exhibition hall where the county's top business people were said to have paid up to £300 a seat to listen to the Clinton message. He is rumoured to have been paid £50,000 to give it.

A delegation of other invited-yet-thwarted journalists, including reporters from Reuters and Press Association, demanded a meeting with the arch organiser, Mike Firth, who arrived at the main door flanked by two bouncers and an Alsatian dog. He wasn't having any of it.

Undaunted, we beckoned to a gum-chewin' secret service agent who willingly gave us the name and mobile phone number of Jennifer Palmieri, Bill's PA for the day.

Had Mr Clinton been aware that journalists were being kept out of the conference hall? Jennifer said she doubted it.

Would he please come out and talk once he had finished his speech? "I'll ask him," she said.

That's why the lofty, silver-haired statesman emerged to walk in my direction with a genially querulous expression. So ... why didn't he come to York and the Minster?

"Oh, I love York very much. I was there when I was a student and later when all the repairs were being done to the Minster.

"And I remember how beautiful York was in the springtime with all the flower boxes on the street lamps," he said, alluding to the effects of the Evening Press York in Bloom campaign.

However, he added, his plane was delayed from Paris "and I thought I'd better make my way straight here to Harrogate. I'm sorry, but I'll just have to take a raincheck on York."

Organisers should not be surprised if next year journalists take a raincheck on the Business Convention.

Updated: 10:18 Saturday, June 09, 2001