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We're not sure how it happened, but alongside their rhetoric about making Britain great again by leaving Europe and charging foreigners to use the NHS (when not stopping them from entering the country entirely) there are some ideas that actually make sense in the Ukip manifesto.

In fact, some would not only make us better off, but better informed.

Here are the policies we'd love the other parties to listen to:

Taxes

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“We can – and will - remove VAT completely from repairs to listed buildings and sanitary products.”

Yes, taxing these, along with things like child safety seats and domestic fuel - while making Twiglets and chocolate chip cookies exempt – is something that should end. Now.

“Raise the personal allowance to at least £13,000 so people can earn enough money to cover their basic living costs before the state starts to take income tax out of their pay packets.”

This goes further than the other parties and means the worst off will pay less tax. Hard to argue with.

See how much tax you'll pay this year:

Pensions

(Image: Getty)

“We will introduce a flexible state pension window, which will widen over time, so even when the state pension age increases to 69, pensioners will still be able to take a slightly lower weekly state pension from the age of 65.

"At the moment, you can delay taking your state pension in return for a slightly higher amount, so Ukip’s proposal merely extends the option in the other direction.”

This takes a bit of explaining, but it does make a lot of sense. The state pension age is rising. And rising fast. Five years ago women got their pension at 60, in five years' time it will be 66.

That's a lot of extra time you have to find money for. This would mean YOU can choose time over money. Why has no one though of this before?

“Historically, people have had limited options of when to draw down funds from their personal plans... Pensioners will now be making complex decisions about when and how much to take from their pension pots and, before doing so, they need expert advice to make sound, well-informed choices.”

The new pensions freedoms have not been backed up with enough information. This policy would help.

“Ukip will make it a criminal offence to cold call someone in respect of their pension arrangements.”

Pension scams are a real threat at the moment, this would mean people would know that anyone calling them is a scammer.

Overall, Ukip are remarkably good on pensions. So good, in fact, even independent pensions experts find their policies impossible to fault.

Houses

"Charge those whose homes are empty for more than two years 50% more than the applicable rate of council tax, with exceptions for owners who are in HM Armed Forces.”

Lots of parties are talking about building houses, which is expensive and hard to do with our planning laws. Shelter calculates there are 279,000 long-term empty homes in England alone.

Bringing these empty homes back into use makes sense. This plan should to get more homes on the market or at least mean that people sitting on homes and not using them are charged for it.

“We will plough 100% of all revenue from Right to Buy sales, after essential costs have been paid back, into new community housing.”

Well, yes. The destruction of social housing stock by Right to Buy has never been addressed. This will at least go some way to slowing it down.

Other good ideas

(Image: Getty)

“Hospital car parking charges are a tax on the sick. We will invest £200 million to make parking at English hospitals free for patients and their visitors.”

We're not sure about the costings, but agree in principal. Charging people for going to hospital is a problem that's not getting better .

“We will also make the way you pay your bill fairer, by stopping energy companies charging extra for customers who use prepayment meters, who do not pay by direct debit, or who require paper billing.”

Quite right, why should people who are worse off have to pay MORE for their energy? Or because they pay in a different way?

“If those who attend foodbanks are in such dire straits that they need food handouts, there is a high likelihood that they will also need additional support to deal with issues such as debt, family breakdown, addiction and poor physical or mental health.

"Many will need employment or legal advice. We will therefore contribute to the important work done by foodbanks and develop them into community advice centres for those most in need.”

This is smart. No one wants anyone to need a food bank but, as long as they exist, they're a great place to find the people most in need of help. Training advisers to spend time there is an elegant solution to helping those in need.

“Scrap the bedroom tax.”

Absolutely.

The rest

Of course, we're not saying it's all good. Here's a breakdown of the rest of their policies in other areas.