Ben Hammersley covers Pakistan elections

Founding Frontline club member and From the Frontline blogger Ben Hammersley is on the move. He heads to Pakistan today for a week to cover the upcoming elections. He’ll be blogging along the way and you can follow what he’s up to as soon as his blog reawakens here. Ben has more on his personal blog live from Heathrow airport as he’s about to board,

So sat, as I am as I type this, in Heathrow only to find that between leaving the house and arriving at the airport more people have been killed in the place you’re travelling to is no less sobering today that it would have been when I was 23. Time to go over my mental checklists once again. Still, LHR-4 is entertainingly full of like-minded souls. You can’t really move around gate 22 without tripping over blokes in khaki trousers and expensive hard-shell carry-on bags; the check-in desk was a sea of Pellicases and tripods. In the old days we’d be stocking up on duty free Johnnie Walker Red Label and cartons of Marlboro, for bribing purposes if nothing else, but there’s little sign of that today. No one is wearing a safari jacket either. Something of a rum show, if you ask me.link