Who else could have filled Bristol Museum?

Apparently, I am a hypocrite. I am also irresponsible .... and I'm a liar.

Why? Because I had the cheek to praise Banksy's Bristol show.

When the exhibition was launched in June, I wrote an editorial approving of the artist's choice of Bristol Museum as the venue.

I said that seeing Banksy's work wrapped cleverly around the museum's unchanging artefacts was a surprisingly moving experience.

And that was when the haters started writing to me.

How dare I encourage this vandal?

Was I really encouraging parents to bring their children to this atrocity?

How did my stance square with previous Evening Post editorials which called for Banksy to be prosecuted?

Well, here I go again.

I have been filled with nothing but pride and admiration every time I have passed the museum and seen the unrelenting queues of hundreds of people waiting to get into the exhibition.

I have nothing but respect for what Banksy has done for Bristol's economy, Bristol's reputation and – for me, most importantly – Bristol's most overlooked and under-appreciated attraction.

What or who else could have brought so many thousands of people to the museum?

I have visited the show several times during the summer and I have watched how the exhibition has drawn visitors into every corner of the building. So much so, that it became a bit of a problem. Museum staff told me that visitors started to look at the existing collections. That was one of the reasons the people queuing had to wait longer.

And I believe Banksy did that on purpose. Like many Bristolians, he will know and love the museum's beautiful rooms and changeless constancy. And now he has literally shared it with the world.

As for Banksy's artwork, I have been struck by both its humour and its strange beauty. Some pieces made me laugh – like the eviction notice on the gipsy caravan, the re-working of Damien Hirst's painting and the Flight to Egypt.

Others unsettled me – like the fat, Western couple taking a picture of the young rickshaw puller or the aged, worn-out Tweetie Pie.

But I think my favourite piece was one Banksy added later – the tearful, regretful, whiskey-full Ronald McDonald above the museum entrance.

I am no street-art devotee.

But this exhibition has made me realise there is a huge difference between intelligent, thought-provoking art and the mindless daub of a graffiti tag.

So, just as Banksy's exhibition has brought the world to Bristol Museum, it has also brought this 45-year-old "art traditionalist" to an appreciation of street art.

I await the hate.

Mike Norton, Editor of the Evening Post