Alright then, perhaps the scenario about the Royal Family needs removal, then.
What I had in mind is that Ireland stays within the UK through a massive change in Britain's governmental structure. They look at the rise of men like Wilfrid Laurier in Canada and the ability of separate states in Australia to unite to form a federation (which happened IOTL in 1901) as a sign that the Irish Home Rule Movement, active since the 1880s, could be contained with Ireland within the UK but with Ireland having far more autonomy. This is done through the passage of Home Rule Bills in 1906 and 1907, which gives Ireland a considerable amount of autonomy in their lands, but allows London to retain sovereignty over the island. This is done in large part by allowing Ulster to have its situation dealt seperately from the rest of Ireland, aware that Ulster loyalists were likely to be a hold up. Despite massive differences involved, no violence results, and Dublin's influence allows conscription to not be passed in Ireland, thus stopping the Irish Civil War. After World War I, however, demands for the same influence run rampant in Scotland and Wales, resulting in further changes in government. Devolved parliaments exist in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales by 1925, and by 1930 explicit separation of powers for the governments involved is written into law.
The Cape to Cairo railway is completed in 1932, in time for it to be used in WWII. Hitler dives into the Spanish Civil War to support Franco, a situation which forces France to back the Republicans. Both Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy force the Republicans out of mainland Spain to the Balearic Islands, where the French Navy has to support them, but Mussolini's attempt to take over the islands by force fails miserably, forcing the Balearics to come under Republican Spanish rule for the time being, but they are de facto part of France as a result.
World War II kicks off and Spain sides with the Axis, followed by Turkey in 1941, wanting to get favors from the Germans, Italians and Spanish. Franco's forces shell Gibraltar to rubble. Churchill, desperate to not lose France, introduces the law to unite France and Britain, which is accepted by the French. Hitler sends his surface fleet to stop the French Navy at Toulon from escaping into the Atlantic, but the Royal Navy fights this. Hood and Prince of Wales are lost in the process, but Bismarck, Scharnhorst and Admiral Scheer are lost as well, as is French battleship Bretagne, but the majority of the Royal Navy and the French Navy shoot their way past the Spanish (whose artillery fire damages dozens of ships) to get to Mainland Britain, Dakar and Algeria. The Italians try to conquer North Africa, but they get a massively bloody nose until the Afrikakorps shows up. Rommel blasts the French out of Algeria and Tunisia (and runs out the Republican Spaniards on the Balearics), but their attempt to take Egypt from Britain fails. Turkey enters the war and attacks Cyprus, but the British hang on doggedly there and at Malta, though much of both islands is devastated by the attacks, and anti-Turkish pogroms on Cyprus result in most of the Turkish population driven from the island in 1942 and 1943. Such is the scale of logistical difficulties that it is mostly French, South African, Palestinian (both Jewish and Arab) and Indian troops who have to help hang on to Egypt during the war. Turkey attempts to take over territories in the Middle East, forcing the Arabs into the war (and Iran, who sides with the Western powers without any invasions)
America's entry into the war comes with huge resources, and the evacuation of over two million Frenchmen to Britain causes societal changes on its own. The French units, both with their own hardware and with British gear, fight viciously against the Germans. The arrival of American troops results in a series of vicious battles across North Africa. Republican Spaniards also fight with the Allies. Rommel is killed by French fighters strafing his command car, and the Afrikakorps is eventually driven out of Africa. The French land massive numbers of troops in Morocco and set up major fleet bases at Casablanca and Dakar to force a second front in Africa and reduce the struggles of the troops fighting the Afrikakorps in Libya and Tunisia, a move that also helps those fighting to keep Malta and Cyprus. The demolition of the Afrikakorps is completed in late fall 1943, and the French (backed by the Americans) take back Gibraltar for the Union and take over much of southern Spain, forcing the Mediterranean open. This results in supply convoys finally ending the sieges on Malta and Cyprus. RAF and Turkish AF fighters get into vicious duels defending Cyprus, and Germany's attempt to bomb them into bits doesn't succeed. The French taking Gibraltar back and the British subsequently providing tons of assistance (logistics, carrier fighters, naval gunfire support, air superiority) to France's taking back Sardinia has a marked effect on the views of both nations. The invasion of Sicily by the Allies is a bloody mess, but it gets the job done, and the Germans attempt to take over the Peninsula from the Italians. In most cases, they succeed, but on Crete, Rhodes and several islands, they don't and the battle turns into an ugly fight, usually settled by the RAF, RN or both. The Italians sue for peace, with the Italian Navy and Air Force fleeing the peninsula and many Italian soldiers defecting to the allies.
Hitler turns his gaze eastward, but his invasion of the Soviet Union gets bogged down almost within sight of Moscow, but the Soviets soon begin using dogged determination and enormous mass to shove the Germans back. The D-Day invasion leads to the beginning of the end of Nazi Germany. The now three-front war turns nasty for the Germans quickly. Franco sues for peace and gets it, but his cost is much of southern France in the hands of the Union for the time being, and the Balearics are ceded to the Union. Italy loses Lampedusa for the same reason. The Nazis are able to hang on better in their center sector, but as they fall back, the Red Army is able to blast its way into Germany well ahead of the Allies, taking all of Northern Germany, with the Elbe largely being the northern border between East and West Germany, Hamburg being a divided city like Berlin and the Red Army occupying Denmark, which results in the Faroes and Iceland also staying with the Union post-war. Newfoundland chooses to stay part of the United Kingdom after the war, electing to send its first representatives to London in 1948.
Having seen that Communist forces are deep into Europe, the Union stands after the war. The Union is reformed into a federal nation in all but name in 1959, with a bicameral parliament - the Senate sits in London, the House of Commons in Paris - and the Union at the same time accepts Cyprus into the Union, the territory of Cyprus also including Rhodes, Crete and several of the Dodecanese Islands. The Balearics join for good in 1962, Malta and Lampedusa in 1964, most of the Caribbean territories in 1968 and Iceland and the Faroes in 1970. At the same time, decolonialization goes much more smoothly albeit slowly. Algeria is accepted as part of the Union in 1959, but is let go as an independent nation in 1967, a similar situation to Singapore, which was annexed to the UK in the 1940 Act of Union but released as an independent nation in 1964. Hong Kong stays as one of Britain's last major overseas territories not sending representatives to the Union until deals are done with China in 1984 to allow Hong Kong to return to China, a deal torn up by the Union in 1989 after Tiananmen Square. China never invades Hong Kong despite numerous threats to, and Hong Kong is instead granted membership in the Union, joining in 1997.
This work, or am I nuts?
