JdS I've lived in the UK a fair old while and never heard the M.I. ref. When I heard it, I thought of Gibraltar, even though it's not an island, but it has monkeys.
Personally, I think it's very funny to think of Europeans referring to us in that way. We are a nation that is changing fairly rapidly, both over the last 50 years and in the next 50 I'm sure. No nation can back to what it was - although many say they want that perceived security and many politicians say that they will provide it. Naturally, it is impossible and so we get an even stranger mess!