Another image from the late West or post-West

On the evening after her famous escape last week, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard held a reception for foreign diplomats. The UK Telegraph ran this photograph:

PM Julia Gillard is joined by partner Tim Mathieson
to welcome Swedish Ambassador HE Anders

Isn’t that nice—the prime minister has a “partner.” We have the same thing in New York, where both Mayor Bloomberg and Gov. Cuomo live with their respective “partners,” or at least girlfriends. But it’s worse when (1) the “partner” is the “partner,” not just of a mayor or a governor, but of the leader of a country, and (2) the “partner” is a man, excuse me, a male. What is the poor fellow’s place in the scheme of things? Look at the expression on Tim Mathieson’s face, the over-eager solicitousness with which he looks at the Swedish ambassador. What is he doing there? He himself doesn’t know.

- end of initial entry -

Jake F. writes:

“… a man, excuse me, a male.”

I have nothing to contribute, but thought you should know that I really enjoyed that.

February 4

LA writes:

The caption in Australia’s Daily Telegraph said, and I reproduced it exactly, “PM Julia Gillard is joined by partner Tim Mathieson to welcome Swedish Ambassador HE Anders.” I thought “HE Anders,” without periods dividing the initials for his name, looked odd, and so I looked him up to find what H.E. stands for. But according to the website of the Swedish embassy in Canberra, Australia, the ambassador is Sven-Olof Petersson. I could nothing on the Web about “HE Anders.” Also, the photograph of Gillard greeting Anders is no longer in the Daily Telegraph article. So I am unable to verify the name of the man being greeted by Gillard.

Also, in looking for the ambassador’s name, I came upon another photograph of Gillard and Mathieson:

Posted by Lawrence Auster at February 03, 2012 12:35 PM | Send