I think Anu's citations of ‘Blighty’ were modern, almost post-modern ironic ones, and from Canadian and New Zealandish (not British) newspapers. ‘Blighty’ was a colloquial term used by the older generation of British people, when we still had an empire. I have warm memories of the term from my father’s generation, but my generation has seldom used it. It was only ever used by Brits when abroad, and I would say it's most often used now by outsiders, non-Brits.

In short, I'd say it represented a 'mystical yearning' from abroad, not a name for the UK itself. The citations were not necessarily erroneous – they mean what the writers meant them to mean -- but I don't feel they represented the soul of the word as the Brits created it.