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[Wonderland]

As people have said, it's no surprise that John would think something was about him.

I think the thought in it was for Julian, but Paul added things in to make it more universal that didn't necessarily have anything to do with Julian at all.

[I_Will]

Paul definetely wrote the whole song on his own. When he first played it to John, he mentioned he might yet change the "movement you need is on your shoulder" line because he felt it was a bit nonsensical/didn't fit in the context and John advised him to keep it in because in his opinion it was the strongest/best part of the song.
Paul tells this story in the Anthology and since then it is ALWAYS cited as one of the perfect examples of the L/McC songwriting partnership in its later years, which in my opinion is a bit ridiculous. I'm sure John's assurance meant a lot to Paul but it was Paul's original idea after all, and it is not even sure that he would have come up with another line that he liked better, so he might have kept it no matter what John had said.

As for who "Hey Jude" is really about, I think Paul started the song with Julian in mind but actually he wrote about himself. The lyrics just don't seem to be directed at a 5-year-old but imo really fit to Paul's personal situation in the summer of 1968: John is with Yoko already but Paul feels alone and thinks about getting together with Linda (you have found her now go and get her). He feels he must shoulder all the responsabilities of the Beatles alone due to Brian's death and John's apathy and it starts to wear him down (don't carry the world upon your shoulders). He probably even realizes that its not a good thing to pretend to be all nonchalant about things when in reality he is completely p*ssed of with the John/Yoko John/drugs situation (for well you know that it's a fool who plays it cool by making his world a little colder). Then he comes to the conclusion that he can't wait for "someone to perform" with but must make do with what is in himself (the movement you need is on your shoulder)

So basically the song should be called "Hey Paul" but that would look a tad self-centerd, wouldn't it?  
And especially my second last "interpretation" makes me really wish that Paul would have actually talked to John about their problems instead of writing a massive hit about it. On the other hand how great must it be to be Paul Mccartney: you are writing a cheer-up song about yourself and a month later the whole world is singing it!  

And no matter if anything of what I've written here is true or not, I know one thing for sure. Paul did NOT write Hey Jude as encouragement for John to get together with Yoko! Just about anything I think I know about this world speaks against it!

That was really eloquently written and I never looked at the song that way, but it makes a lot of sense.

[eroz0]

I agree with Shani that the song was inspired by Julian but it ended up being mostly about Paul.

This quote is from John's 1968 Rolling Stone interview:

"Well, when Paul first sang 'Hey Jude' to me... or played me the little tape he'd made of it... I took it very personally. 'Ah, it's me,' I said, 'It's me.' He says, 'No, it's me.' I said, 'Check. We're going through the same bit.' So we all are. Whoever is going through a bit with us is going through it, that's the groove."