The British rules are quite simple: If the punctuation is part of the quotation, it goes inside the quotes. Otherwise, it doesn't.
I think it's more complicated than that.
Sometimes the punctuation inside the quote is lost or transformed. Consider;
"Where are we going?" said joe.
"We're going to the movies," said kate.
In the first sentence, the quoted text ends in a question mark and a question mark remains in the text. In the second, the quote itself is a full sentence and should end with a full stop. Instead, the comma 'overwrites' the period that should be there.
Also, I'm not convinced of your rule; end-of-sentence markers (question, exclamation, full stop) always get swallowed, regardless of circumstance. So it's correct, but unsatisfying, to say;
Did he say, "this isn't a question?"meaning
was, "this isn't a question," what he said?as well as
was, "this isn't a question?" what he said?"