Making an honest manifesto for local government elections, especially in the current climate, is a particularly difficult task. With the coalition imposing both a council tax freeze and substantial cuts in central government funding on councils across the country, the largest part of elected councillors' role is simply deciding where the axe is to fall, with no ability to change the size of the cuts needed – and no ability to change national policy.

For a party unlikely to seize control over any councils – like Ukip – power is even more limited. In reality, any newly elected Ukip councillors will be unlikely to be able to change much at all.

That hasn't stopped them pledging a great deal: Ukip's manifesto for the local elections centres on immigration, foreign aid and (of course) the EU: three issues no local council can do anything about.

The figures in there on those topics have varying degrees of veracity. The manifesto states:

"While our membership of the EU costs £53m a day – and another £23m a day goes out in foreign aid – jobs, services and benefits are being cut here.

Ukip believes that we should save that money to help rebuild our debt-ridden economy."

The figure for foreign aid is correct, based on an aid budget of around £8bn a year, but the EU figure is questionable: it's based on the UK's gross contribution to the EU budget, of around £19bn – but the UK gets plenty of money back: in regeneration projects, farming subsidies, the rebate, and more.

The Guardian Datablog recorded the UK net contribution to the EU in 2011-12 as £6.97bn, or £19m a day – less than half the Ukip value.

Such numbers also mean little out of context: for comparison, interest repayments on government debt cost around £132m a day, state pensions £203m and the NHS £267m a day. Giving a big number out of context doesn't do much to tell us what's going on. In all, the UK government spends about £1.9bn ever day: leaving the EU budget a drop in the ocean.

Other figures in the manifesto are also open to debate. The entirety of the second page of the Ukip document is devoted to quotes and statistics opposing immigration, from a range of sources. These include an estimate from Philip Hollobone MP that Romanian and Bulgarian immigration could treble to 425,000 within two years.

Predicting immigration is difficult, and has been done wrongly in the past (including with previous EU entrants) – but Hollobone's estimate is particularly high. Migration Watch UK, an organisation often described as anti-immigration (and which has itself faced accusations of inflating migration figures) estimates immigration from Romania and Bulgaria will increase to 50,000 a year – far below the figure used by Ukip.

Other issues are less clearly defined in figures: one of the "six Ukip priorities" listed is cracking down on benefit and health tourism. But evidence as to the cost of health tourism is surprisingly thin on the ground. While some headlines wildly claim the cost as "billions", the government has used two estimates: £200m – taken from a 2003 report which estimated costs at £50m to £200m – and another of just £20m over the course of five years.

The NHS has a budget in excess of £94bn. If the high estimate of £200m were correct, health tourism would cost the UK 0.2% of its health budget. At the low end, the figure could be under 0.01%, or £1 in every £10,000. Whether that's a fitting top six priority, of course, remains a question for voters.

More broadly, the manifesto promises the world, provided you don't ask for the specifics. "Tax should be as low as possible," it says, with a further pledge in the economy and enterprise section to "reduce tax and business costs to stimulate the economy", and another pledge that "council taxes should go down, not up".

But, it continues, this needn't mean spending cuts: Ukip opposes the bedroom tax, plans to "build more grammar schools, reinstate the student grant and educational maintenance allowance" and protect rural schools.

Ukip will also "improve care for the elderly" and "oppose cuts to frontline doctors, surgeons, dentists and nurses", plus "improve road care as a priority" and "upgrade public transport". There'll also even be more free parking, and no road tolls for lorries – except, of course, foreign lorries.

Youth services will get more investment. Frontline police won't face cuts. And – naturally – libraries will be preserved.

Lower tax and more spending for all. Not bad, eh? There's really only three options here: Ukip may have discovered the philosopher's stone and is generously planning to devote its proceeds to the public coffers.

Alternatively, and arguably less plausibly, it feels the £53m a day (or £19m a day by the Guardian's reckoning), aided by cuts to council allowances and the inevitable "efficiency savings", will be enough to fund tax cuts and large spending hikes.

Finally, it may just be enjoying the privilege of minor parties in the UK: to making promises which are easy to like and impossible to keep – in the sure and certain knowledge you won't be in power to keep them.

Nice work if you can get it.