“· BBC chairman Sir Michael Lyons faced a peasants’ revolt on Thursday. Fresh from defending the licence fee at the Oxford Media Convention, Lyon took to the platform at the Beeb’s in-house news seminar, and looked as if he thought he’d be in for an easy ride. Sorry, Mike, no chance. Chairing the session was Andrew Neil, who asked why Lyons complained about government regulation yet imposed more bureaucracy on the BBC. “I’m not here to answer questions like that!” spluttered Lyons. “Yes you are!” replied Neil, reading out a list of complaints from staff “drowning in a sea of paperwork”. Lyons testily dismissed such talk as “nonsense” and asked why they hadn’t given their names. Cue staffers in the audience getting up to list the compliance hoops they have to jump through, including Today editor Ceri Thomas. The chastened chairman didn’t help his cause by admitting the BBC Trust costs £12m per year to run. As one participant asked: “How many Today programmes can you make for that?”"