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As the new crescent moon heralds the arrival of Eid and the month of Ramadan comes to an end. I’ve been reflecting on social media comments on fasting and prayers. Alongside the voices urging the faithful to cherish these past few weeks as a time of spiritual renewal, restraint and self-emptying, I’ve noticed how the word shame has appeared a few times in peoples conversations – in the context of `don’t judge or shame those who aren’t fasting’; that the believer’s faith is between them and God. I find shame to be a powerful emotion but one not one which we talk about easily mainly because its seen as destructive, a painful humiliation. The act of shaming is often about belittling others and in this sense, shame can be oppressive, toxic even dehumanising. But having a sense of shame is in my view, a virtue, it’s like a moral compass we carry inside, our conscience, which acts as a nudge to do the right thing – it can be an important tool for our personal growth. It’s also a word which we expect in our political leadership. We pride ourselves that our parliamentary democracy is built on the rule of law, free speech and attention to due process. But these foundations remain weak if respect, trust and decency seem lacking amongst those who govern us. We can have as many rules and regulations, codes of conduct, as we want to create standards in public life, but without people exercising integrity and accountability, acting with contrition and remorse when they need to make amends, bad behaviour and shamelessness will become the norm. Our politicians will become brazen in the hope that the public will judge racism, sexism and bullying as casual, simply par for the course. I fear this is a far bigger threat to our civic and political life because decency isn’t some naïve sentiment removed from everyday business; it is essential to our personal and political well-being. When decency is the norm, other virtues also thrive. Each year I’m grateful that I can celebrate Eid with family and friends in a peaceful country. I’m also grateful that we have so many people who take a personal risk by going into public life, who want to do good and work hard for a fairer society. We shouldn’t be a society which relishes the downfall of our public figures and the decline of our institutions. Rather it’s important to stay hopeful that each day comes with new possibilities for us all to have the moral courage to do better and to be better.